I think it’s hard to say who will win the Rugby World Cup, and the reason for that is because it’s taking place in a country where no team will have a massive following.

In all the recent World Cups, the host nation have had massive home support. But, in Japan, it’s going to be about which country adapts to the conditions the best as they try to claim The Webb Ellis Cup.

When England landed, they landed into a Typhoon. I’m sure that will be something a lot of the players have never experienced before!

Head coach Eddie Jones believes England will need to be adaptable and I think their players will be massively outside their comfort zones.

The conditions will be different from what they are used to, it will be humid. Wales coach Warren Gatland has been covering balls in baby oil in their training, while Jones has used a similar technique, putting soap on the balls. They’ve been doing that in an effort to try to recreate that humidity.

So, I don’t think it’s going to be like previous World Cups, where you have one team who are red-hot favourites. But I think you are going to be looking towards teams who have good attacks.

England’s first three games are going to be in indoor stadiums, so it’s not like it’s going to be played on a boggy pitch, like you would get in the Southern Hemisphere at this time of year.

Based on form ahead of the tournament, the three teams I would say are going to be up there will be England, New Zealand and South Africa. If I was going to have a punt right now, it would be one of those three who will win the tournament, although New Zealand are probably slight favourites.

Of course, New Zealand play South Africa on Saturday which will be interesting. It’s a match which could go either way.

The caveat to that is no team has ever won a World Cup having lost a game - England got the closest, losing to South Africa in the 2007 final.

So, whoever loses this weekend, they will be immediately in a difficult position in Pool B and might struggle to bounce back, or they could, potentially, become the first team in World Cup history to win the tournament after losing a match.

When you are picking a World Cup squad, I think you have to pick a squad which combines form and experience.

Jones has made a risky decision, going with two scrum-halfs and two tight-heads in his squad. They are two specialist positions and, if I was going to take two, I would have taken Danny Care as the back-up scrum-half.

For me, the Harlequins man has that game-changing ability that not many scrum-halves in the world have. Despite the fact Willi Heinz looks to be a solid player, I’m not sure he has the game-changing ability that Care has.

In terms of tight-heads, England have gone with Dan Cole and Kyle Sinkler. But if one of those players goes down, the other player will have to play 80 minutes in every game, and tight-heads normally play 50 or 60 minutes and then change. So, there will be a massive workload on either of those two guys if the other gets injured.

I’m not saying Jones is wrong, but my preference would have been to take three tight-heads and three scrum-halves. But, if I was going to take two scrum-halves, I would have taken Ben Youngs and Care.

With regards to the four everyone seems to be talking about not making England’s squad - Care, Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown and Danny Cipriani - I played with three of them previously, so I’m probably slightly bias, but I would have taken three of them.

Cipriani has the ability to do things which nobody else within the team can. I don’t know him personally, but you have question some of his previous actions.

So, from a personal perspective, I’m not sure you can criticise what Jones has done by leaving Cipriani out but, from purely a rugby perspective, there is a strong case to say he should have gone.

With Brown, he is an experienced full-back, although there are a lot of options in the back-row now. Personally, I would have taken him.

For me, he is the best player under a high ball in the world, so I think he will feel aggrieved, as will Robshaw. His leadership ability means he would have had a good case, so I’m sure it will be disappointing for him not to be involved.

But you do need to pick the squad on form, too, and Cumbrian Mark Wilson has been one of the form players in the Premiership for the last couple of years.

He has now taken that form on to the international stage, and probably got better. He has come in quite late but he has just taken his opportunity.

I know him because, when I was at Newcastle, he lived around the corner from me, so we spent quite a lot of time together. He is a very, very down-to-earth guy, and a typical Cumbrian bloke.

Away from England, I think the three players to watch will be Fijian lads Josua Tuisova, Semi Radradra and Viliame Mata who was probably the form player in Europe last year.

Centre Chris Harris, who started his career at Carlisle, has also made Scotland’s squad and I’m delighted for him.

I started playing with Chris when I was about seven and we went through the Carlisle age-groups together, and we are still friends now.

Similar to Wilson, Harris has been a stand-out player for Newcastle Falcons for a number of seasons and he has taken his Scotland chance.