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High time for Noon

It is a curiosity - inevitable, of course, in contact sport - how sometimes there seems a pattern in the injuries that dictate selection. Take England's fraught midfield, an area which has never settled since the departure of Will Greenwood four years ago and which, against Italy in Rome on Sunday, will be the preserve of Newcastle Falcons.

Mike Tindall, a World Cup winner in 2003, would have gone to the 2007 global tournament but for breaking a leg playing for Gloucester last April. The player who, in effect, took over at outside centre was Jamie Noon, whose World Cup ended prematurely when he was carried off at the Stade de France with severely rearranged knee ligaments on a night when so many English hopes were apparently washed away in the 36-0 pool defeat by South Africa.

England begin trying to put wheels back on the wagon

England got back on the bicycle in Bath this morning, their first training session since the departure of the wheels against Wales at Twickenham last Saturday. It is the refuge that players always have - the next match, in which they can repair the damage of the previous weekend while those who watch agonise endlessly about what went wrong.

There was a strong feeling in Wales after their 26-19 win, the first at Twickenham for twenty years, that their side was not given enough credit for their contribution to victory. It happens quite frequently. If there is a general preconception about how a sporting occasion should go, and then it does not, there is a tendency to look at the failings of the favourites rather than the strengths of the victor.

Gatland wins the media game

It's always amusing to see which coaches play the game best - the game with the media, that is, rather than the actual match. Brian Ashton, whose England team meet Wales at Twickenham tomorrow on the opening day of the RBS Six Nations Championship, will seldom allow himself to be drawn into verbal sniping though a fairly audible snort will always indicate what he thinks of some over-the-top opinion which has found its way into the press or onto the air waves.

Simon Shaw gets a shot at redemption

All of a sudden the RBS Six Nations Championship is smacking us in the face. The three months since the World Cup ended in Paris have been so full, the confrontations in the Guinness Premiership and the Heineken Cup so plentiful, that the world's premier international tournament has been on the back burner.

Robinson's finale soured by injury and drugs test

England's rugby players did what so many amateurs do after a disappointing match in Paris last night - they went for a drink. Not, though, the unfortunate Jason Robinson: having left the field prematurely with a dislocated right shoulder, he was then required for a random drugs test.

That delayed his visit to hospital for an X-ray and, by the time he returned to the team hotel in Neuilly at 2.45am, all he was looking for was his bed. The injury is likely to stop him playing what would have been his last representative game, for the Barbarians against South Africa on December 1.

Pienaar's World Cup best XV

It was not so much what he said as the way he said it. Dropping into a newspaper stand at Les Sablons, the Metro station near the England team hotel in Neuilly, the vendor looked with disfavour at the purchased copy of The Times. "English?" he said with a grimace. "Would you have beaten the All Blacks?"

Who could blame him? So many Frenchmen had hoped this would be their sporting year, that there would be crowds up and down the Champs Elysee to celebrate a World Cup triumph, just as there had been for the footballers of 1998. That it had been the "strange" English who had eliminated France only made it worse.

Legends praise lesser nations

Five great rugby players were asked this week their view on prosposed reductions to the number of World Cup participants in 2011. There was not one dissenting voice from Martin Johnson (England), John Eales (Australia), Joel Stransky (South Africa), Zinzan Brooke (New Zealand) or Philippe Sella (France) that it should remain at twenty rather than go down to 16.

Fans should lay off Barnes

The new media is all very well in its way, but you wonder sometimes at the advisability of placing worldwide communication in the hands of individuals who should be confined to a bar-room argument. The vitriol that has been heaped on Wayne Barnes over his handling of the France-New Zealand quarter-final has been offensive in the extreme to a young referee heading to the top of his particular rugby tree.

Team of the weekend

The surprising sequence of results during the quarter-finals of the World Cup threw up unexpected contenders for the team of the weekend, no-one more than Mosese Rauluni. Fiji's scrum half, who is to stand down from international competition for the next year to give more time to his family, played wonderfully well against South Africa, was unfortunate not to score a try and gave the Springboks more problems than they might have expected.

Players enjoy the calm before the storm in Marseilles

There was a deathly hush along the Vieux Port tonight. The chatter among evening diners was muted, chairs were all turned away from the harbour to face the TV screens showing European football between Marseilles and Liverpool. Local restaurants, who do not mind charging fancy prices in this part of town, were able to place televisions where all their customers, dining outside, could watch.

Not that the football bothered three of Australia's backs. Nothing flash for Matt Giteau, Lote Tuqiri and Drew Mitchell as their quarter-final with England on Saturday here looms. They ambled down from their clifftop hotel for a simple pizza, largely ignored by passers by, though it will be interesting to see for whom the locals are shouting at the Stade Velodrome - perfidious Albion or Australia.

Hotel status tells its own story

While France, the host nation, made the journey from the sunshine of Marseilles to the rain of Cardiff for their quarter-final, England made the reverse journey south from Paris though they may well ask if they were accorded the status of champions. A swift comparison of the hotels in Marseilles occupied by the four quarter-finalists in the city suggests that South Africa, beach-side, are number one, Fiji - looking out onto the old port - number two, Australia round the corner but looking out over the Mediterranean number three and England - on the long drag out to the Stade Velodrome - number four.

French enthusiasm reflects well on tournament

Here's an interesting thought: nearly 400 more people turned up at the Parc des Princes to watch Portugal play Italy than appeared last night to watch England play Tonga. The easy answer to that is the cost of tickets: England, the world champions, are valued higher than their Latin cousins and anyway, so many of these World Cup matches come as packages rather than single outings.

The origin of running rugby in Samoa

A last word from Samoa: two members of their executive, taking breakfast, were explaining why the Pacific islanders have a reputation for running rugby. "When the British first arrived in the mid-nineteenth century, they left behind a rugby ball," one said. "We loved playing with it on the beach but whenever anyone went to kick it, the others all shouted "don't do that, we've only got one" in case it floated away to sea."

Australia buoyed by arrival of bonecrusher Howard

Pat Howard left Leicester at the end of last season having delivered two of the three domestic and European trophies to Welford Road and vowing to resume working within the chain of pharmaceutical stores in Australia in which he has an interest. So, no surprise when he turns up in Montpellier this week as the Australian Rugby Union's director of high performance.

Os Lobos enriched tournament with passion and flair

Portugal's World Cup is over after their long-cherished hopes of a victory over Romania failed to materialise. But Os Lobos have enriched the tournament by their presence, by their huge enthusiasm and no little skill for a squad the vast majority of whom are amateurs.

Team of the weekend

If the underdogs continue to growl as loudly as they have done so far in this World Cup, we will feel their absence when the knockout phase begins. Over the last few days there have been displays of genuine quality from Tonga and to a lesser degree from Samoa to go alongside Georgia's riveting tournament; hence the arrival of Finau Maka (left) in this weekend's eclectic XV.

British coaches need to travel south

Trams are always a great attraction, particularly if they take you where cars cannot. After all, you are unlikely to be caught in a tram jam so the chance to use the system in Montpellier and Nantes has been eagerly embraced during the World Cup.

England need to chill before a possible appointment with the old enemy

Just a thought but which of England and Australia would you say, are the more relaxed country at the moment? It helps, of course, if you are winning and playing tolerably well which Australia are and England are not but the context helps too. The Australians are swanning around Montpellier, mingling with the locals and looking thoroughly at home in their town centre hotel.

England need more devil

Sometimes it's the people you meet who make a World Cup seem a better place. Two of the Samoa Rugby Union's executives, taking a late breakfast, were reflecting on their side's unexpected defeat by Tonga in Montpellier at the weekend. "You don't beat Tonga by being polite," one said and it is a theory England might take to heart when playing Samoa in Nantes on Saturday.

Rugby World Cup team of the week

The underdogs have roared long and hard at this World Cup so maybe England, their status waning rapidly, can join them this week. Georgia's display against Ireland, a game that they should arguably have won, justifies their representation and if there was a reward for bravery going round, it should go to Portugal for the gallantry of their display against New Zealand despite the concession of more than 100 points.

15 - Chris Latham (Australia); 14 - Vincent Clerc (France), 13 - Jaque Fourie (South Africa), 12 - Diago Mateus (Portugal), 11 - Giorgi Shkinin (Georgia); 10 - Berrick Barnes (Australia), 9 - Fourie du Preez (South Africa); 1 - Soane Tonga'uhia (Tonga), 2 - Goderdzi Shvelidze (Georgia), 3 - B J Botha (South Africa), 4 - Joe Tekori (Samoa), 5 - Mamuka Gorgodze (Georgia), 6 - Jerry Collins (New Zealand), 7 - Nili Latu (Tonga), 8 - Wycliffe Palu (Australia).

How to become a legend

When France organised their opening ceremony at the start of the World Cup, they did so with a host of rugby legends to represent each of the competing countries. So John Eales ran onto the Stade de France to wave a rugby ball at the crowd on Australia's behalf, Jonah Lomu for New Zealand, Morne du Plessis for South Africa, Keith Wood for Ireland, Hugo Porta for Argentina...and Steve Thompson for England.

Asterix the Gaul

The tales of Asterix the Gaul have, and always will be, the most popular of items to cross the Channel. The great fear of Asterix's tribe was that the sky would fall upon their heads, in which case Bernard Laporte is surely a latter-day member. The French coach's reaction to the opening-day loss to Argentina ran thus: "When you begin the World Cup, and it's imperative you win the match, and you lose, you can only say one thing, that the sky has fallen in on your head."

The 17-12 defeat was the first thing the tournament as a whole wanted - a result to set competition ablaze - and the last thing that France needed. Pool D is no longer a pool of death. it is a dog fight now for the host nation, Argentina and Ireland.

Warming, though, to walk out of the Stade de France after midnight and watch Frenchmen strolling for the last train into Paris and those clearing up the trade stalls applauding the last vestiges of Argentinian support. There was a generous appreciation of just how effectively the South Americans had upset the local applecart.

So to Lens for England's opening fixture with the United States and a chance encounter with the former England B centre, Graham Childs. He played 12 years ago for Wasps and Newcastle (before the addition of either London or Falcons) and made a senior tour with England before turning his hand to business, so effectively that he is now a Nike representative based in Hilversum.

'Nuff respect

The hordes began assembling early on the Metro today, the horn-blowing, chanting groups of French supporters, none of them aware of the "charter" issued this afternoon by France's World Cup organising committee. It might have appealed to their sense of humour, though, as they downed a glass and waited for night to bring the opening game between the hosts and Argentina.

There were seven paragraphs urging supporters of all persuasion to respect rugby's values, an admirable thing in itself but not entirely what French rugby has traditionally been all about. Respect the opponent's anthem, the charter urges, respect their goalkickers and the referee's decisions. This is like overturning an entire culture: there are few places where the kicker is more likely to work his art afflicted by a storm of jeering while referees, even the very best, have learned to deal with the abuse.

Still, we can but hope and remember that sometimes, it has seemed that kickers are more affected by utter silence than they are by the roar of the crowd. As for England, thank heaven that reinforcements have turned up in time for tomorrow's game against the United States. The biscuit manufacturer, McVitie, have dispatched a regular supply of Jaffa Cakes to our boys  to help "tackle players' flagging energy levels, before, during and after matches."

That should turn the scales, particularly as the accompanying press hand-out describes England's World Cup win in Australia as having taken place in 2004. Accuracy is a wonderful quality. Food has also been, as it were, on the menu for the All Blacks down in Marseilles: Anton Oliver, the hooker, and Isiah Toeava, the young centre, took part in a cooking master class this week but all under the watchful eye of the team nutrionist, Glenn Kearney - no sneaking off with a quick doughnut.

To have and have not

So England have the Trianon Palace, a palatial hotel just round the corner from Louis XIV's Chateau de Versailles, and their opponents in the first World Cup pool A game, the United States, have a chain hotel out by Lille's Lesquin Airport. It was ever thus but still, it does serve to point up the distinction between rugby's traditional powers and those who seek to join them.

World Cup diary

It's a slightly eery feeling, twenty years on. Then there was the uncertainty of competition, what a "World Cup" really meant and whether England - who had not enjoyed a distinguished 1987 - would perform well. Now we know what a World Cup is all about but, unlike 2003, we are now uncertain once more about how England (who have had an undistinguished 2007 so far) and how they will perform in France.

The saving grace at the moment is the conviction, in public anyway, of the England players who left for Paris today that they have the ability to compete with the world's best. Players, of course, .live in the here and now anyway. The last match has gone, whatever the result, and nothing can bring it back; the next match is still to come and the preparation has still to be completed.

So you greet the handful of players on display at the Heathrow Hilton with the usual cheery commonplaces, you admire the new tailoring (Marks and Spencers since you ask) and you wait to see if anything more than the usual round of anticipatory remarks emerges.  Particularly from the new boys: Paul Sackey was nowhere near the 2003 squad and is honest enough to observe that he did not deserve to be.

But he says, without being asked, that the belief and self-confidence in the squad is "massive". So it should be for him: he made a good debut last autumn in an England side under-performing, he recovered from injury in time to join London Wasps on the way to their second European title. Sackey has not been tarnished, in any sense, and he is so looking forward to taking a place on the world stage.

Whether he and the rest of the party had time to enjoy the delights laid on for them by British Airways is a moot point. BA delight in pointing out the "range of high protein and energised foods" available on the short haul to Paris, in which chicken and hard-boiled eggs feature, and the additional 30 litres of water on board in case the team become seriously de-hydrated. It's just like the water carriers who leap onto the field of play 30 seconds after the kick-off to pump liquids into their charges, who have scarcely had time to work up a sweat.

Other passengers had the opportunity to send the players good-luck messages: "Like a rose to the sun - onwards and upwards" was, apparently, a favourite and will have brought a warm glow to those members of the team who are budding horticulturists. It is fair to say, though, that they need all the goodwill they can get.