British and Irish Lions

The December 1 draw, which takes place in London, will see the World's top-eight teams split into two sets of seeds.

Teams ranked one to four will all avoid each other in the group stages of the tournament, as will teams five to eight.

As things stand, Scotland are ranked ninth by the IRB, meaning they would face two seeds in their pool.

However, the Scots could still climb back into the top eight at the expense of Ireland if results go Frank Hadden's way this weekend.

Scotland need to beat Canada and hope that Argentina continue to be Ireland's bogey team by gaining a win over Brian O'Driscoll and co at Croke Park.

The Pumas themselves have plenty resting on the match against Ireland as a victory would see them maintain fourth spot and guarantee a place among the top seeds. Finishing fourth would be a huge boost to any side as it would mean avoiding the All Blacks, Springboks and Wallabies until at least the quarter-final stage in New Zealand.

England could still overtake Argentina with victory over South Africa or New Zealand or an Irish victory in Dublin, while France could also finish fourth if results go their way.

The Rugby World Cup will again be split into four pools of five teams, with the top three slots in each pool filled by the 12 pre-qualified teams from the last World Cup.

All four Home Nations, the three southern hemisphere giants, and Argentina, Fiji, France, Italy and Tonga are the teams who have already qualified based on their performance in France in 2007.

Having become only the ninth Welshman to pick up a Heineken Cup winners medal, Gethin Jenkins is now getting ready for his next challenge - holding on to his British & Irish Lions Test spot.

Lions skipper Sam Warburton says the lessons he and his Welsh colleagues learnt in Australia last summer will stand them in good stead for their return visit with Britain and Ireland's elite next month.

Tom Youngs has enjoyed a remarkable rise to the top of the British & Irish game but he won't be resting on his laurels ahead of his first Lions adventure.