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Brave and committed: USA
The 2007 Rugby World Cup is well under way in France and a second weekend of crucial matches is upon us.
Sky Sports rugby commentator Miles Harrison is in Paris to cover England against South Africa and from there he will jet off to Cardiff for Wales v Australia.
Here he will give you his views on what is going on at the World Cup and in his second column he praises the "minnows" but not England.
First question Miles is nice and simple. How are you enjoying the competition?
MILES: I am loving it. We have had an excellent start.
We have all read the articles about how the World Cup needs to reduce in size or be a two-tier competition with a plate for the so-called lesser nations, but I have always been uneasy with that argument.
I am a great believer that we have a global game, one that is growing with each year, and I think we should hold our nerve because in a decade's time we could genuinely have a much more level playing field. If we get the politics right off the field, we could have a World Cup that makes just about every other sport apart from football jealous.
With better preparation for the 'minnows' there has been a reduction in the gap between the different tiers in rugby although you could argue this has been helped by the performances of the home nations. England's display against the United States is the perfect example of that.
Who cares though why the gap has closed, what is important is that it has closed. We will get cricket scores, they will happen, and this weekend presents an opportunity for that when New Zealand take on Portugal. Let's just hope nobody gets hurt as that is another issue.
Cricket scores happen in sport, you get 5-0s at the football World Cup and worse, so we can accept it in rugby as well and when one side is that much better than the other, it does look like such a stark contrast because of the physicality of our sport.
But let's face it, we haven't had many of those matches so far and because of that it has been a very encouraging opening week.
How did you assess England's performance against the USA?
MILES: I had to rack my brains to remember if I had seen England play as poorly as that and, given the situation, I don't think I have, even taking into account the 66-0 drubbing in Perth in 1998.
At the end of a hard domestic season in 1998 that England team in Western Australia was made up of a bunch of guys that were nowhere near the full England squad and found themselves propelled into the firing line. Last week though we saw an England team that had been given plenty of preparation time, the top players available and training time together, but they would be the first to admit that it was woeful.
They had injuries to deal with but who doesn't in rugby and we shouldn't take anything away from the United States, who put in a really brave and committed performance.
There seems to be an assumption that England will improve this weekend but a lot of England fans are very, very worried that they won't. What would you say to those fans?
MILES: England have to perform better against South Africa and I think they will, even if it is for the fans, who have paid an awful lot of money to follow them as they defend their crown.
I don't think there is too much of a general assumption that England will get better though because we have all got used to below-par performances from England.
What I do assume though is that the effort level will be at maximum. I am not saying they haven't done that so far under Brian Ashton but the intensity of the occasion and what it means, the fact that they are the world champions and are playing South Africa, demands it.
If England don't raise the level, it will severely embarrass them given the evidence of the Tri Nations and their opener against Samoa. It is a match that concentrates the mind and England have to produce a level of intensity that we haven't seen from them for quite a while now.
I think they will do that but I don't know if it will be enough to win the match.
Another big game this weekend is in Cardiff and you will be there calling the shots for Australia against Wales. A game you are looking forward to?
MILES: You can make an argument that this is the big game of the weekend because Wales v Australia is certainly as big as England v South Africa.
When you consider you have a Tri Nation team who genuinely believe they can win the competition, playing a home nation trying to end a tough year on a high, there are obvious similarities to Friday night in Paris.
For Wales to have home advantage is a massive thing for them. They really do need to use what they have in Cardiff for the next two games against Australia and Japan to launch their World Cup, to get the self-belief back into the squad.
You could almost see it draining out in the approach to the World Cup but it was starting to come back in the final stages of the victory over Canada and that could be important for this match and their tournament.
