There were all sorts of events going on during the afternoon, such as Meet the Players to get autographs, training sessions for kids with the team, face painting, competitions etc. It’s great to be interested in a sport where the players are so accessible – I can’t see it happening with the England football team any time soon! I did feel a bit sorry for Jonny Wilkinson [left], who was inevitably the centre of attention – he needed about 5 minders to keep the groupies away! He seemed to be bearing it with remarkable good grace, however.

Other players who I saw pottering about included the midfielders Jamie Noon, Matthew Tait, and Andy Farrell (who also seemed popular with the autograph hunters).

Prop Matt Stevens and second row Steve Borthwick [right] were putting the kids through their paces at rucking practice. A tad unfair since they could probably both have lifted up the kids with one hand, and were trying to get them to lever 110Kg of Forward off the ball!

Entertainment was provided by a marching band, looking splendid in their Dress Reds and enormous Busbies. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the Gospel Choir, mind you. Although they were much better than the crowd at singing Swing Low!

At least the Sign For England bus was a success – a double-decker where you could sign your message of support to the boys, all over the outside:

[my contribution on the side of the Sign For England bus]

The finale was a little bit of a letdown – the team were paraded onto the pitch and stood under the posts whilst Austin Healey quizzed Brian Ashton and Phil Vickery. Then they sang Swing Low and fired a load of streamers at the team:

[the England boys attempt to unravel themselves from the red and white streamers]

Would have been nice if they’d let them have a final lap round the pitch to wave to the spectators, but they were ushered off again quite quickly. Oh, well – I’ll see them on Saturday in Lens! Can’t believe my RWC trip has come round so quickly. You can see the rest of my photos from this year’s Scrum In The Park.

I’ve signed up for a package which takes me to the Opening Ceremony plus the first game, France vs Argentina in the Stade de France, Paris. That promises to be a big spectacle, and I expect both teams will be out to prove something, but especially France, hosting the tournament.

Then I’ll be off to Lens for the Red Rose Boy’s first pool match, England vs USA.

The games fall on the first weekend of September, and there was another (non-rugby) event which clashed, so I had a big decision to make. In the end, I figured the other thing was annual, and there’s always the 2008 event – whereas World Cups only come round every four years, and the next one is somewhat further away than France, so there wasn’t really any contest!

Not much of a milestone in blogging terms, you may say. But I’ve enjoyed blethering away about my favourite sport for the past year. Whether anyone else is reading is immaterial!

I’m looking forward to the rugby-fest that presents itself on Saturday: three games on the trot. Need to stock up on beer and take the phone off the hook!

Jason Robinson’s training injury is a bit of a worry, having been scoring well since his return to international duty. Let’s keep the fingers crossed it’s nothing serious. I’ll stick my neck out (no pun intended) and make a few predictions:

Scotland vs Italy, 15:00, Murrayfield
The Scots are on a roll from last time round, and Italy have now lost two in a row. Plus, the Scots have home advantage, even if the ground will be far from a sellout. I think if Italy were to beat anyone this year it would most likely be Scotland, but I’m not sure they’re fired up enough yet. So, Scotland to win.

Ireland vs England, 17:30, Croke Park
The clash everyone’s talking about. Brian O’Driscoll, fit for this game, thinks Wilkinson will be a big influence (he’s not wrong). England looked relaxed in training yesterday, according to reports. If they can keep their composure, they may upset the party at Croke Park. But Ireland’s midfield are more of a threat than either Scotland or Italy have been – so Andy Farrell better be on his toes. I think Ireland will win, but not by much. Actually, I don’t mind either way as long as it’s a great game and doesn’t get swung by iffy refereeing decisions.

France vs Wales, 20:00, Stade de France
The Welsh are smarting from two losses, and basically have nothing to loose by going to Paris and doing a number on the French. Captain Raphael Ibañez is worried about Gallic complacency, which could indeed by their undoing. But do Wales have the bottle at the moment? I think not, so my money’s on France to win.

["We've got Rugby's finest minds"]

I wondered if he’d got the enourmous egg from constantly battering opposition front rows?

The club vs country row rumbles on like an old sore which has had the scab picked off yet again. WHEN are the RFU and PRL Ltd going to sort it out?! It’s getting very tedious! They are all looking like bigger eggheads than Keith Wood! And the poor old players just end up as piggies in the middle.

With a Six Nations rest weekend coming up, Brian Ashton named his team to play Ireland on 24th earlier in the week, in the hope that his chosen players would be rested by their clubs, a large number of which have important games scheduled over the weekend.

Wilkinson sits out Newcastle’s game against Bristol, but team mates Tate and Flood are in the starting XV. Some of the Leicester boys might come off the bench for their Worcester game. But Saracens are fielding Andy Farrell at 12 for their match against Gloucester. I’m disappointed to be missing that one, especially as a win could mean they move into the top 4! But I’ll be watching closely for the result!

It’s not just the English who have been inconvenienced – several Premiership clubs refused to let their Scottish internationals attend a training day this week.

Now, we have to look forward to the weekend’s games and dream about what it would be like if we were still ranked #1!

Andy Robinson‘s picked the team for Round 2 against the Springboks, and he expects great things of Andy Goode. We certainly need a solid contender for the Number 10 shirt, now that Charlie Hodgson has joined Jonny in the injury camp.

Sheridan’s also got an extended time off with injury – so that’s three Sale big hitters now on the sidelines – Scotland back rower Jason White also sustained a serious knock during the game against the Pacific Islands, and is out for at least nine months. Sale must be worried that this triple whammy could well hinder their Guinness Premiership title defence.

Indeed, Saracens are equal on points with Sale in the Premiership right now, hovering at number six. Sale are at five only by virtue of having won one more match than Sarries:

As you can see, Sarries are not short of point-scoring ability either – they have the biggest tally so far, and fly-half Glen Jackson is the top points scorer in the Premiership (for the second year running) – he’s currently on 116 to Charlie Hodgson‘s 80, and poor old Charlie is unlikely to be scoring any more this season.

Bath and Worcester are struggling at the bottom of the table – Bath having only won two games out of 8 so far, and Worcester none. Something had to give – Worcester have just announced they’ve parted company with coach Anthony Eddy. More good news for Sarries, perhaps, as they are playing Worcester on Sunday at home. I’ll be at the match and will post some photos as soon as I can.

Backs: I Balshaw (Gloucester), O Morgan (Gloucester), J Lewsey (Wasps), M Cueto (Sale Sharks), P Sackey (Wasps), B Cohen (Northampton), M Tait (Newcastle), A Allen (Gloucester), J Noon (Newcastle), T Flood (Newcastle), C Hodgson (Sale Sharks), A Goode (Leicester), P Richards (Gloucester), S Perry (Bristol).

Forwards: A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), P Freshwater (Perpignan), J White (Leicester), S Turner (Sale Sharks), G Chuter (Leicester), L Mears (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), D Grewcock (Bath), T Palmer (Wasps), C Jones (Sale Sharks), P Sanderson (Worcester), L Moody (Leicester), T Rees (Wasps), M Lund (Sale Sharks), M Corry (Leicester), J Forrester (Gloucester).

Seems like a good mix of youth and experience. Let’s hope they can bring it on when the Kiwis take the field.

Today I was playing with the BBC’s Squad Selector, a bit of fun which allows you to see who you would put out in the white jersey. So here’s a screenshot of my pre-emptive selection, before Robbo gets his official one out next week:

Not sure if the shirts are in exactly the right place, so here it is as a list – I’d like to put it in the correct rugby team order, 15-9, then 1-8, but HTML isn’t that clever

1. Sheridan
2. Mears
3. White
4. Kay
5. Grewcock
6. Moody
7. Lund
8. Corry (Capt)
9. Perry
10. Hodgson
11. Lewsey
12. Noon
13. Tait
14. Cueto
15. Balshaw

On the bench:

1. Chuter
2. Freshwater
3. Palmer
4. Sanderson
5. Richards
6. Goode
7. Sackey

I wonder if we will agree!

The ironic thing was that fit-again Farrell has been sent back to Saracens from the England camp, in order to get more training time with his club!

Mad, innit?

I don’t have any pictures of Mr Andrew himself, but here’s one of his team Newcastle, when they visited Saracens in December 2004 for a Powergen Cup match. Jonny Wilkinson emerges from underneath a heap of bodies, including the sizeable figure of Saracens’ Hooker Matt Cairns.

The season is almost upon us again, and that means two things – the Middlesex Sevens tournament at Twickenham and Streakers!! Yep, apart from a great day of sevens rugby, we got two streakers on the pitch.

So good value for money! Of course, modesty prevented me from taking pictures when the gents were running the other way… but what I want to know is, how come the security folk left it to the most petit WOMAN on duty to go and round them up?? LOL. But you had to admire their determination, it was pretty cold and windy and not really the sort of day you wanted to be cavorting around in the buff.

You can see more serious pictures of the rugby at Rugbypix.com, and there are some extras in my Flickr account.

Now then, a fortnight’s countdown until I’m back at Twickenham for the London Double Header – Wasps v Saracens and Quins v Irish. Good stuff.

1. Livin’ Thing - ELO
2. More Than A Feeling - Boston
3. Don’t Stop Movin’ - S Club 7
4. I’m Not In Love - 10CC
5. Rock ‘n’ Roll Part 2 - Gary Glitter
6. Cold As Ice - Foreigner
7. Rebel Yell - Billy Idol
8. Whatever You Want - Status Quo
9. Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
10. I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
11. Since You’ve Been Gone - Rainbow
12. Centrefold - J Geils Band
13. Summer Of ’69 - Bryan Adams
14. Never Ever - All Saints
15. Mr Boombastic - Shaggy
16. Owner Of A Lonely Heart - Yes
17. Manic Monday - Bangles
18. Don’t You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds
19. Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
20. Rock On - David Essex
21. How Tou Remind Me - Nickelback
22. Mandy - Barry Manilow
23. If You Leave Me Now - Chicago
24. Walking In Memphis - Mark Cohn
25. Life Is A Rollercoaster - Ronan Keating
26. Can You Dig It? - Mock Turtles
27. Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
28. Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant
29. Chant No 1 - Spandau Ballet
30. Boogie Nights - Heatwave

I was quite alarmed to learn that, of these top 30 (compiled by Q magazine), I actually have 8 on my mp3 player. Yikes! I’m not telling which, though. And thankfully, some of the naffest (#3, #5, #20 #22) are not on my playlists!