The 2015 World Cup will be the most open in the history of the competition.

For nearly five years now, the All Blacks have been comfortably ahead of the game. But all the signs from the Six Nations indicate that the gap is shrinking fast.

New Zealand, of course, have never won a World Cup overseas and the task is not about to get any easier.

An unhelpful draw means that the All Blacks will cruise through the pool stage unchallenged and then be battered by the best that the northern and southern hemispheres can put up against them.

If it pans out on current form, the All Blacks would face France in the quarter, South Africa in the semi and England or Ireland in the final. Daunting.

But even if results go the other way, a run to the title of Ireland, Australia and Wales would be far from straightforward.

Normally only four teams have any real chance of winning the World Cup, but in 2015 seven nations could make a good case for at least getting to the final.

New Zealand will get a good look at England in June, but Steve Hansen and his coaching staff will presumably have been taking in plenty of other information from the Six Nations.