Rugby-Monkey business - primate predicts winners World Cup matches

A monkey in the southern Japanese city of Oita has become the latest animal to try its hand at predicting Rugby World Cup matches.

The 13-year-old male monkey, named 'Goro', successfully predicted that New Zealand would beat Canada and after the All Blacks proved him right with their 63-0 romp, the primate has forecast two more matches. Clearly not a fan of the underdog, Goro has predicted that Australia will beat Uruguay on Saturday and that Wales will also defeat Fiji in the next two fixtures to be held in Oita.

Goro, who lives in a local zoo, selected the results by catching sweet potatoes hanging from banners of the participating countries. Earlier in the tournament, a pair of octopuses in the northern island of Hokkaido predicted Japan's pool stage matches.

They predicted Japan would beat Ireland - which they did - but also that the hosts would lose to Scotland, Samoa and Russia. Japan beat Russia in the opening match of the tournament and play Samoa on Saturday.

Oracle animals have become somewhat of a tournament tradition ever since Paul the octopus won global fame in 2010 by accurately picking the outcome of a string of Germany’s soccer World Cup matches that year.

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