RL World Cup poised for kick-off

England coach Tony Smith hopes to cause an upset on his native soil

Hosts Australia start strong favourites to defend their title as the 13th Rugby League World Cup prepares for kick-off.

England and New Zealand are the only countries expected to offer a realistic challenge to the dominant Kangaroos.

The three favourites are in the same group along with Papua New Guinea, who open the 18-match event against England at 0955 BST in Townsville on Saturday.

Scotland, Ireland, France, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are the other teams competing down under in the next four weeks.

Given the gap in standards between the competing teams, organisers have resorted to a two-tiered competition to avoid the sort of one-sided matches which disfigured the previous World Cup, held in Britain in 2000.

Three semi-finalists will come from the group featuring the four strongest teams, with just one last-four berth up for grabs from the other two groups of three - one featuring Fiji, France and Scotland, the other Ireland, Tonga and Samoa.

The winners of each of those two groups will play off in a semi-final qualifier.

We are confident about our chances. I have 24 fit players wanting to make history England coach Tony Smith

The official opening ceremony will take place before Australia take on closest rivals New Zealand in Sydney in the second of Sunday's games (0900 GMT KO), a repeat of the 2000 final.

Kangaroos captain Darren Lockyer insists the favourites will not be under-estimating the opposition.

"We know that not all the time the favourites win," Lockyer said. "We realise that it is going to be tough and that there's absolutely no room for complacency from us."

England's Australia-born coach Tony Smith, who recently became a British citizen, believes his side are well-equipped to challenge the hosts.

"We are looking good," he told BBC Radio 5 Live. "We are confident about our chances.

"Nobody has given us any chance over here, which is fine. We are quietly going about our business, and we have a lot of confidence in what we are doing.

"The group of players I have here are very determined. There are 24 fit and healthy people who are willing and wanting to make history, and have the desire to do so."

A lot of people seem to regard the World Cup as a second-rate joke competition BBC Sport's Paul Fletcher

After a successful 1995 World Cup held in England, celebrating the centenary of the sport in the host country, the 2000 event was widely regarded as a disappointment.

The 16-team tournament, in which defending champions Australia beat New Zealand 40-12 in the final, was staged at a variety of locations across Britain but failed to draw large crowds.

But officials are confident the 13th World Cup - originally scheduled to be held in Australia in 2004 but delayed over worries about how competitive Great Britain and New Zealand were at the time, and the rise of the Tri-Nations tournament - will be a commercial success.

"This is going to be a professionally run tournament and we haven't cut corners on costs because we're showcasing our sport to 126 countries around the world," said tournament director Colin Love.

"This event is going to become a major international sporting event in a very short space of time."