Resistance is futile, the Kangaroos are just too good.

THIS is not going to be one of those years when New Zealand defies the odds and beats Australia — the Kangaroos will win the World Cup final easily.

It might be a contest for a while, but the most likely scenario is that Australia will establish its superiority in the first 20 minutes at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday, put a two-try gap between it and the Kiwis and never let the opposition any closer than that.

Whether Australia runs right away with it or not will depend on how determined New Zealand is not to be embarrassed.

The Kiwis stunned Australia in the 2005 Tri Nations final in Britain, to win 24-0. The following year, they took the Tri Nations final down to the wire against Australia in Sydney, before losing 16-12 in golden point extra-time. The current New Zealand team does not look capable of such ambushes.

New Zealand has beaten England on each of the past two weekends, first in the group stage, then in a semi-final, but conceded an average of 23 points in those games. Australia conceded four points when it played England in this tournament.

Looking for something that can point to the possibility of a New Zealand win, you can say it has got Benji Marshall, who can be brilliant in any company. But he is an enigmatic type who can also have a bad night.

He paired with Scott Prince in the halves in the Wests Tigers team that won the 2005 premiership and had a big influence on that success. But Prince was at least as responsible — probably more.

Prince is in the Australian squad, but, apart from a run with the fringe players against Papua New Guinea, he has only made the first-choice team when Johnathan Thurston was out injured, against England.

Thurston will pair with Darren Lockyer in the halves in the final and they will be more than a match for anything Marshall can engineer.

Australian coach Ricky Stuart hates talk about the World Cup being a one-horse race and it is his job to keep getting the team up for these contests.

He has managed to keep the players focused. The team is as relentless as he is.

Australia did the job professionally, as anticipated, against Fiji last night. It had the Fijians down 22-0 before the game was 20 minutes old and, after things got scrappy for a short time in the second half, it pulled away in the last 20 minutes.

But, even when a team is scoring 10 tries, as Australia did last night, its attitude in defence says most about it. The odd time Fiji attacked Australia's line it was suitably desperate to hold firm.

Good luck, New Zealand you are going to need it.