It all kicked off tonight, and in true style!

Argentina stunned hosts France 17-12 in the opening match.

England go in to the tournament, despite holders they are severe underdogs. They take on USA tomorrow. And they have to do it without Golden Boot

Well if they can't beat the USA they should make them swim the channel to get back home - big question though is whether Wilkinson will be fit for the more important games starting with South Africa in a week's time.

Can't see England making much of a defence of the title, think as soon as we play someone half decent we will fall well short, but as tonight's game shows you never know!

I've bet £10 that Italy will do a double-whammy - they won the Football World Cup last year and I think that euphoria will boost their Rugby team to world glory this year.

New Zealand are the faves though - England should do well to beat USA, South Africa we tend to do well against if they don't play on home soil.

For underdogs, I would be happy enough to see England make it to the knockout stages (quarter-finals)

£10 on Italy....

Samoa are more likely to win....

I stand corrected; they just got thrashed by New Zealand.

And even if it was going to be a fairly easy one...

England 28-10 USA

RSA 36-0 England

ENGLAND DID IT!!!

They beat Australia 12-10!!! Watch their odds get cut now - flippin hell, what a game!

AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING!!!

WHAT A GAME!

And Sols had the nerve to doubt them!

EDIT- Also we delayed having our World Champions title taken away until next week!

I knew we'd do it - Golden Boot you ledge!

Now all we need is France to upset the odds and we might have a chance of winning the cup again - I reckon New Zealand is the only team we'd lose against now!

What if we play RSA in the final?

In order to do that, we'd need to beat New Zealand or France - so if we could beat them, South Africa would be mincemeat, surely!

Seriously, even if Australia had a weakened side, the way England constantly pushed forward throughout the entire game, I've gotta say that was some of the best rugby I've seen England play since the 2003 World Cup. Here's hoping we get France and not New Zealand though!

And now the All Blacks (or Half Greys as they were tonight) turned over by the French!

France are somewhat unpredictable so England will fancy their chances against France in the semis... then a possible rematch with South Africa in the final. The Springboks wouldn't have expected that after the 36-0 a few weeks ago!

Exactly what we wanted - now we stand a strong chance of making the final!

England-Scotland final anyone?

Oh HELL yes!

Hmmm...England are still only fourth-favourites to win the cup, 10/1 - Scotland are 100/1 and Fiji are 300/1

Probably because they're the hosts but also now coz they wiped out the pre-tournament favourites, France are now the bookies' favourite to win. South Africa are second favourites, where you can get threes for them, and Argentina are third-favourites, where you can sevens for them.

Hours to go...even John Motson said at the start of the football today that several England fans are today snubbing the footie to see England hopefully reach their second straight World Cup Final.

I so hope they do it - and for the record, Argentina hope they slaughter South Africa, would LOVE to see how well we fare against them!

What a start! 5-0 already

Half Time
ENG 5
FRA 6