'I aged about 20 years today' - RWC Day 2

I'm sure that every English rugby supporter and not only Martin Johnson lost a few years after one of the strangest games I have seen England play. I was early the pub for England's first game and the shock on peoples face when Johnny missed all those penalties was clear to see, Johnny doesn't miss these, the man dropped the goal that won the World Cup!!

England seemed to lack any sort of ferocity at the breakdown and quickly got on the wrong side of Bryce Lawrence (though to be fair this is very easy to do) and if Martin Rodriguez had not had a equally shocking day from the kicking tee England could have be buried at half time. Add to that the way Argentina started the second half with Marcelo Bosch almost going over it was almost a miracle that England came through. The introduction of Youngs changed the game and he is now a certain starter for the Georgia game. Aside from the result the general England performance was very naive, we all knew the Argentinian forwards would muscle the breakdown and go hard the scrum but England seem ill prepared to face the onslaught. It is not all doom and gloom, a win is a win and England have won the hardest game in the group and can now move to to securing top spot in the pool.

Due to a Stag do this weekend I did not see the other games on Saturday but have managed to catch some hi-lights. From these Japan looked like they may trouble Canada and possibly Tonga further along in the tournament. France will only improve and will be happy they have another game before they have to meet the All Blacks.

Fiji and Namibia put on an entertaining game and I think the Fijians will give SA and Wales good tests but I still do not see an upset on the cards.

As for Scotland they left it late but did secure a four try bonus point which could prove crucial when it comes to their games vs Argentina. As with England Scotland just needed to win their first game.

So five games in to the RWC and we have seen some of the 'big guns' under perform and get run close, it certainly has not been champagne rugby but world cups are not about that, its all about the winning.