Counterattack

Clive Woodward's players obviously decided they had to leave a lasting mark on the Subiaco Oval in Perth after dealing to the Springboks. Cleaners wading through the usual post-match mess of tape and empty drink bottles were less than impressed to find the dressing room walls had been covered in English Red Rose stickers. "I wouldn't mind if they used Blu-Tack, but they glued them on and it's murder getting them off," one unimpressed attendant said.

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English first-five Jonny Wilkinson has been prudently standing further back from rucks and mauls to protect his baby-face features, and his legal eagles are doing much the same to protect his cyberimage. The Boy Wonder's company (Jonny W Ltd) has been busily buying up all the obvious connotations of his domain name to ward off late-hits from cybersquatters, aka "people who would damage his reputation", according to a release.

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On one television channel, an expensive and supposedly unsinkable English behemoth lumbers towards a collision with something ice-cool and immoveable in the middle of the ocean. And meanwhile, TV3 was screening Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

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World Cup angst and a sense of impending doom is making its presence felt among the normally bullish Springbok supporters. "I may have to emigrate," Business Day editor Peter Bruce wrote. "I can live in a country with the highest murder rate in the world ... where politicians live in the pockets of business people ... where the currency yo-yos ... where my home is surrounded by electric wires ... but I cannot live in a country without a fly-half."

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It's good news and bad news for the Rauluni family. They are all smiles to hear Jacob Rauluni has found the financial wherewithal to abandon his lucrative halfback berth at Rotherham and join the Fijian squad still in the hunt for the quarter-finals. The downside is that he will now go head-to-head with brother Moses for the make-or-break test against Scotland.

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Australians may be impressed by the amount of amber fluid being consumed by rugby fans but they are beginning to bleat over the prices being charged for a humble pint at the major venues. A schooner of imported Heineken at the Aussie and Telstra Stadiums costs $6.45, about $2 more than was being charged for a cold Aussie-brewed beer at the NRL finals matches and the Australia-Zimbabwe cricket test.