Counterattack

Melbourne's largest-selling newspaper has taken umbrage at comments by All Black Carlos Spencer, who said it didn't feel like the cup was going on in the Victorian capital.

Spencer's remarks, made in Brisbane after his team's victory over Tonga , were described by the Herald Sun as a "back-hander".



The first five-eighths said of Brisbane: "There's a lot more hum here about the cup, right from our arrival at the airport. It's obviously very quiet in Melbourne. We've been there the last few weeks and it hasn't felt much like a World Cup."

Herald Sun columnist Ron Reed wrote: "They were saying how pleased they were to be in Queensland where rugby really matters. Funny that. I could have sworn the reason they decided to base themselves in Melbourne was to escape the tumult and the shouting. To hide from the hype."

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There's more to Jonny Wilkinson's legs than just kicking. The English star is at present outstripping the 600 other players in the cup as the sexiest bloke on the field, according to an internet poll being conducted on www.news.com.au.

Wilkinson is leading a pack of 15 finalists with 20.7 per cent of the vote, although the Welsh - possibly with nationalist resistance to another English victory - have already picked their own Nathan Budget as the hottest bloke in world rugby.

More than two-thirds of Welsh women said they watched rugby to look at the players' legs, and agreed that the shorter the pants, the better the footie.

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Pool B cellar-dwellers Japan may have a culinary excuse for struggling to make an impact in Australia - they have run out of their secret weapon, Sasanishiki rice.

The team, known by unlikely rugby moniker of the Cherry Blossoms, brought 150kg of the Japanese rice for the tournament but, according to the Australian, ran out long before their pool appearances.

Instead, they have been forced to turn to an Australian-produced variety, much to their reported disquiet.

Cup organisers have also felt obliged to explain Japan's choice of name, given that Cherry Blossoms raises definite image problems to less-subtle Western rugby fans.

The cherry blossom, like New Zealand's fern, is a national symbol - and so celebrated that TV stations report on the progress of blossoming from March to May, and the national meteorological service gives region-by-region forecasts of tree flowerings.

Officials say that because the blossom is a symbol of national unity, it is a fitting name for Japan's rugby team.

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Four-square prop Trevor Leota, one of several top Samoan players absent from the cup, is doing it hard after watching in a London bar TV coverage of the team threatening to topple the Poms.

"I can't wait for the World Cup to finish," he told the Times, "because I can't concentrate at the moment ... I was almost in tears watching the first game against Uruguay in my local.

"Some of boys were texting before the game saying I should have been there, then some of them afterwards are like, 'So, we don't need you after all'."

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Australia will meet Ireland in Melbourne for two test matches this Saturday. While the Wallabies play host at Docklands Stadium, an even bigger crowd is expected to pack out the mighty MCG for the second International Rules test, a hybrid game blending Aussie Rules and Gaelic Football. Australia won the first test 56-46 in Perth.