The number
2 - Days left until RWC 2011 kicks off, and the number of times England have reached a World Cup final after losing a pool match. England, the only team to accomplish the feat, were defeated by New Zealand in a pool match in 1991 before losing to Australia in the final. In 2007, they lost to South Africa in a pool match before the same team beat them in the final. RWC 2007 is the only tournament to feature a rematch and it happened twice. England met South Africa twice and France met Argentina twice.
He said it
"I've watched him play. Some of the things I do, they say it's like Jonah. It's just how I play on the field."
- Fiji wing Naipolioni Nalaga is unfazed by comparisons with New Zealand great Jonah Lomu. In fact...
"Yeah. I can do better."
Hums and arias
If Wales win the Rugby World Cup, the soundtrack for the commemorative DVD is already in rehearsals.
In keeping with native traditions, team members have formed a choir and are spending plenty of time exercising their vocal cords between training sessions.
Much to the delight of their fellow hotel guests in Wellington, they are breaking into song in the hallways, elevators and the dining room.
Although they delivered a rousing rendition of the traditional Welsh-language love song, 'Ar Lan Y Mor', at their official welcome on Sunday, some choristers are not overly confident of their singing abilities.
“A couple of windows were broken when we first started but we’re a work in progress and, who knows, we might release a single," said towering second row Bradley Davies.
Boks' bluster
It's a shame that supporters of Wales' Pool D rivals South Africa are not so melodic.
While the Welshmen were having lunch at their hotel, three young men in Springbok jerseys parked their car across the road and emerged each holding that trumpet of torture, the vuvuzela.
The fans took careful aim with the horns, painted in green and gold, and blasted the building tunelessly for a good 15 minutes.
Scientific studies after last year’s Fifa World Cup in South Africa found vuvuzelas emit 127 decibels. That is louder than a referee's whistle (121 decibels) and even louder than a rock band’s drum (122).
If the horn blowers turn up again at an hour when the Welsh are trying to get some rest, they are likely to need something a little faster as a getaway car than the clapped-out Datsun 120Y they were last seen driving.
Tuilagi talks in tongues
England's Samoa-born centre Manu Tuilagi has become more English than he realises.
The 20-year-old's Islander tattoos were only partially hidden by his white England polo shirt as he talked to the media in Dunedin this week.
But what was even more noticeable was his Midlands dialect picked up playing schoolboy rugby in Leicestershire before joining Leicester Tigers.
Asked what his five Samoa-international brothers thought of his English accent, Tuilagi looked shocked.
"Do I have an English accent?" he asked. "No one's said that before."
Skulk burger
Ireland second row Donnacha Ryan has a guilty secret.
He has discovered Queenstown’s renowned hamburger shop Ferg Burger - and he cannot get enough.
“I had a double Ferg Burger with brie cheese,” Ryan said. “And I went back again later on as well...”
Asked whether the team’s nutritionist Ruth Wood-Martin approved, Ryan replied with a grin: “She wasn't there. What she doesn't know won't hurt her.”
Merde he wrote
While Wallaby scrum half Luke Burgess is keen to emphasise he is solely focused on Australia's World Cup campaign, he will be using his down time holed up in his hotel room with a French phrasebook in preparation for his move to French club Toulouse. When asked how he was getting on, he succinctly replied: "Merde."
Roads, rates, rehab
Wellington City Council is running a competition encouraging residents to dress up their streets, cars, homes and offices for the World Cup.
And with the council offering the prize of a $500 tab and VIP treatment for six people at a local bar, it's no wonder the city is already looking like World Cup central.
Italian masterpiece
Much of the body art on display at RWC 2011 has a very personal story behind it, and none more so than the Maori design on Italy prop Andrea Lo Cicero's right leg.
"I had this Maori tattoo done in 2000 after scoring a try in one of my first games for Italy against the All Blacks in Genoa," recalls Lo Cicero, 35, who will retire after the competition. "Since that time, it has followed me around the world, so I've got special feelings about completing this small history of my playing career in New Zealand."
Perhaps he should have a word with the mother of fellow Azzurri Tommaso Benvenuti. "She said to me that I should think hard before getting a tattoo," the winger was overheard telling a teammate.
Boot on the other foot
The name Jonny Wilkinson on a teamsheet is usually enough to give opponents nightmares about conceding needless penalties.
But for the World Cup winner himself, there is a man who fills him with the same dread - Felipe Contepomi, with whom he played for French club Toulon and who may be his opposite number on Saturday, selection permitting.
"I've sat in the crowd and watched Felipe kick, I've watched him from the bench, I've stood on the field during a game and watched him," Wilkinson told the UK's Independent. "Often, it's seemed like he can't miss."
RNS sw/sg
