According to the telegraph we have the following reasons to be cheeful about the shambles that is “England Rugby World Cup 2007″.

Jonny Wilkinson is poised to return to the starting line up against the Samoans, which should at least guarantee that England trouble the scoreboard this time out.

And there’s more. Jason Robinson, perhaps the only man in white to emerge from Friday’s besting by the Boks with any credit, could return for England’s final Pool match with Tonga.

Whilst I’m pleased Jonny is back and I wish Jason a speedy recovery, I’m not “cheerful” as yet. The way I see it, Jonny, whilst being a world class player can’t single handedly revive a team this bad. Whilst warming up for my hockey game the day after the South Africa game I overhead the following quote, which I think sums up the state of English rugby quite well.

All we have is slow ball for slow backs.

No matter how good Jonny is he can’t inject pace all on his own. Also I don’t actually remember Farrell missing any kicks against the boks. Whilst Jonny is often deadly accurate in front of goal he has to have the opportunity to have a pop..

I’m pleased Jason looks likely to be able to play again, but unless we buck our ideas up, he will be playing in a meaningless game with nothing to prove…

I’m all for being optimistic, but lets be honest. Something fundamental has to change for us to have a hope. Quick ball for quick (creative) backs (with a killer instinct) would be a start!

Still, I’ll be there hoping that something will change, watching anyway. You can see the next England game on TV by using the Rugby TV Schedule

The buzz word this week was STW - Shock the World… The only shock that came out of this game was quite how bad England were.

On the plus side, there can now be no-one harboring any illusion that England can still win the world cup. I’m not sure they will get out of the group.

I’m most upset by how calm and collected Brian Ashton was after the game. I am fuming, he should be too. There was only one player who came out of the game with any pride intact, Jason Robinson was awesome. Unfortunately he has probably played his last rugby game after leaving early with what looked like a torn hamstring.

For anyone who hasn’t already seen enough, can watch England play Samoa. Don’t expect miracles, don’t expect English trys, and don’t expect an English win.

Today is the day. South Africa vs England (shown on TV at 19:30).

Can England raise their game to a level that will enable them to compete against South Africa, who are probably the second best team in world rugby at the moment. Personally I think England have nothing to lose. I doubt there are many people who are expecting them to win, and going into the game without a recognised fly half just adds to the list of reasons why England should struggle.

Having said that, I wouldn’t write them off quite yet. These games have a habit of being close, and maybe just maybe England can pull something special out of the bag.

The only thing for certain is that at 7:30 tonight, I’ll be sat watching on TV, cheering them on, praying for a miracle.

England are going into this Fridays game against South Africa without a number of key players.

Phil Vickery has been banned for his trip on USA centre Paul Emerick (himself banned for 5 weeks for a spear tackle on Olly Barkley). It looks likely that Matt Stevens will replace Vickery in the team to face the Springboks on Friday, with Perry Freshwater joining the bench.

England are also suffering from the probably loss of Jonny Wilkinson with an ankle injury while fly-half replacement Olly Barkley is struggling with a hip injury. Just to make matters worse Mathew Tait and Dan Hipkiss have been ill and in isolation since the weekend.

So all in all England’s already impossible task has just got harder…

I’ve been pondering recently what would happen if we swapped the referees for a Rugby and Football match.

Lets ignore the fact that not even the Rugby referees seem to know what happens in a scrum, and assume that both referees knew the rules of the opposition sport.

I predict that the rugby ref would not be able to contain his laughter with some of the dives and feigned injuries from the footballers. Wouldn’t you just love to see someone rolling round on the floor only for the ref to continue the game.

Conversely I doubt the game would get past the first 5 minutes the amount of stoppages there would be. Whistle - that bloke who just got tackled hasn’t got up yet, lets stop the game and check he is alright.

Moving on to more sinister aspects of the game. All the argy bargy in football would be ignored. “He didn’t punch him in the face, it isn’t a foul”. However in a rugby game no-one would be left at the end. I don’t care if you just gave him a little shove, that is a red card.

I know that people are worried that rugby is starting to go the way of football with people (Such as the Argentinian number 9) asking for others to be yellow carded, but I for one would love to see football played with the same spirit and respect as rugby. Its never going to happen, but it would be great.

There would be a minor scuffle and the football ref would send everyone off.

All the 6 Nations teams struggled in their opening games.

Italy were beaten by the All Blacks, France lost to Argentina, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales all won but nothing was convincing.

Compare these perfomances with South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, who between them racked up 226 points and only conceded 24.

Should we be worried… Well, its fair to say none of the 6 teams, with the possible exception of the French have ever been as clinical as Australia or New Zealand. This seems to be across all sports, not just rugby, I’ve never understood why.

The Boks recorded an impressive win, running out 59-7 winners agains Samoa, with Bryan Habana making the most of the day to touchdown 4 tries.

What England can learn is that their game on Friday against South Africa will not be easy. On this form South Africa look like one of only a few teams who can get close to the All blacks.

South Africa vs England will be shown on ITV 1 starting at 20:00.

England and Wales both win, but neither team will be happy with the performance.

Only Olly Barkley and maybe Josh Lewsey came out of the game having had a good game. Barkley had a couple of early breaks a good kicking game and rounded it all off with a try. England ended up leaking a try, but came out 28-10 winners.

Wales went into an early 9-0 lead, but Canada came back and led 17-9 after 45 minutes. The last half hour saw Wales take more control, and they eventually ran out 42 - 17 winners.

France suffered their first ever loss in the pool stages of the world cup.

In the opening game of the 2007 Rugby World Cup the hosts have been beaten 17-12. If the rest of the results in their group go against them France could be out of the world cup, or may have to face New Zealand in Cardiff. If France end up as runners up and New Zealand win their group then the two will meet in the Quarter finals, which despite this being France 2007 will be held in Cardiff.

Personally I’d like to see a France vs New Zealand quarter final.

You can of course follow all the news of the World Cup right here, alongside with the rugby tv schedule.

I have just blogged about ITV’s new Fantasy Rugby competition which they have created for the rugby world cup.

As I was browsing through the site something wasn’t quite right, and then it hit me… That favicon isn’t a rugby ball…. For some reason itv have decided that the best favicon for their fantasty rugby competition is a football… Go figure.