Counterattack

The International Rugby Board is expected to pay the $25,000 fine that the judiciary imposed on England over the 16-man incident.

It works like this: Each team is paid about $360,000 for playing. Two-thirds of the cash is handed over before the tournament starts and the rest is due to be paid next month.

World Cup spokesman Chris Rea said the fine would probably be deducted from that payment, rather than requiring England to cough up the cash.

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Australia denies claims aired in a Scottish newspaper that it has been spying on the Jocks as they prepare for Saturday's quarter-final in Brisbane.

Scotland On Sunday reported that on at least two occasions two men - one with a video camera and the other with a still camera - have been spotted in the main stand during secret Scotland training sessions.

Australian Rugby Union spokesman Djuro Sen rubbished the allegation, pointing to the Scots' poor form in the pool games.

"Spy on Scotland? What for?" he said.

"I do not know anything about this, but if we wanted to spy on Scotland we would probably do it in the game against Fiji."

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A feature of the cup has been the riot of colour in the stadiums, with fans lapping up the opportunity to show off their allegiances by having their faces painted.

The paint comes from a surprising source: the Salvation Army.

More than 700 Sallies volunteers have been providing the service without charge, and have already ploughed through 1000 tubs of paint.

The organisation reports that about 2000 fans have taken up the offer at every match from Townsville to Launceston, with Irish and Scottish fans its biggest customers.

"The complex designs requested by the Georgian and Uruguayan supporters have proved to be the biggest challenge," said Army spokesman Adrian Kisten.

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Gerwyn Jones, a Welshman married to a New Zealander and living in Auckland, tells how a couple of years ago he found a form on the Welsh Rugby Union website, asking expat rugby players if they might be entitled to play for Wales.

For a laugh, he filled out the form for his 18-month-old son Morgan, saying he was playing in the Auckland Grammar 1st XV.

The next day he had an email from the Welsh Rugby Union - written by none other than the famous Jonathan Davis - asking him to ring urgently as the union was very interested in Morgan and his possible future in Welsh rugby.

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With TV audiences still surging and games so popular that last Wednesday's release of the final batch of tickets for the Australia-Ireland game sold out in a mere seven minutes, US President George W. Bush had to fight for Australia's attention during his visit last week.

Despite shutting down Canberra like a fortress beneath fighter jets armed with missiles and orders to shoot down any unauthorised aircraft flying too close, and with newspapers and TV dominated by the visit, Aussies were still hungry for rugby.

The news monitoring agency Media Monitors Australia, in its latest weekly analysis of what is being reported and talked about, said Mr Bush only just pipped the cup by 10,859 items to 10,781 across radio, TV and newspapers.