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Alastair Eykyn

Singing Namibia's praises (51)

Bordeaux Someone give these guys a game. used the biggest stage of all to highlight the problems facing rugby’s so-called "minnows".

Their commitment, passion and unquestionable talent was there for all to see in , as they threw an industrial-sized spanner in the Irish works. But how on earth do they progress from here?

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Nick Mullins

Suffering from La Baule blues (56)

La Baule - So there you go, seven days into the World Cup and we’re all going home. Wales - and the rest of us flip-flopping around with them - are pulling the suitcase out from underneath the hotel room bed and heading back to Cardiff for the next couple of pool matches.

Sunday in was terrific, the hospitality there and here at our base beside the Atlantic in La Baule has been overwhelming. But just as we’re beginning to get into the swing of the party, we're off.

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Bryn Palmer

Ashton laughs in face of adversity (55)

Trianon Palace Hotel, Versailles - You had to feel for Brian Ashton.

Three days before the critical game of England’s World Cup campaign against South Africa, one that will probably define his reign as head coach, and things weren’t exactly going to plan.

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Ryan Jones

Mixed emotions for a game of two halves (18)

Swansea - With the dust having settled on on Sunday, it’s only now that I’ve sat and watched the boys in action that it’s hit home what I’m actually missing in France.

It was a day of mixed emotion for me and the thought that I may be watching my only chance to play in a World Cup slip away was not eased by the Canadian first-half performance.

In hindsight fans will be asking why it took us so long to exercise our superiority in the contest but it must be understood that in international rugby, regardless of who you are playing or what world rankings suggest, there is not going to be a lot of room early on.

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Andrew Cotter

Scotland play waiting game (18)

St Etienne is a strange place to be at the moment.

The excitement of the first glimpse of the Rugby World Cup at the Stade Geoffroy Guichard (he founded a supermarket chain if you were wondering) has now given way to a general torpor, a hibernation until the next game is staged here and Samoa take on the United States - in just over two weeks' time.

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