Betting tips / Ralph Ellis / 13 September 2011 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

You would have thought by the newspaper headlines that England and South Africa had lost at the weekend but despite neither winning convincingly, they got the all-important result and move on.

When your World Cup campaign gets off to a bad start, it doesn't take long for the panic button to be pressed. The critics back home get stuck in, and nerves build up.
Take this bit of commentary from a leading national newspaper as an example. "The performance was not good enough . . . the captain didn't energise the team . . . our hopes are hanging by a thread. . . it's no good trying to claim that a narrow win is as good as a win by 40 points."

No, that's not from one of the English papers. It's how the Citizen in South Africa summed up the state of things after the holders had beaten Wales only by a single point. And it's just a reminder that Martin Johnson's side weren't the only one of the leading nations whose campaign got off with a less than convincing start.
Across the whole first World Cup weekend, in a set of fixtures that included quite a few apparent mis-matches, not a single side ran in 50 points. Ireland found it hard to put away the USA, Australia were no more than competent against Italy, and France were struggling against Japan until late in the game. Even the All Blacks had an awful second half against Tonga.

What matters is, first of all, that you do actually win that first game. Wales may have got all sorts of praise for the dashing way they took on South Africa, and may have been desperately unlucky with the James Hook penalty that never was. But all it says in the results column is they lost, and that's immediately moved them to anything up to [7] in the betting to reach the semi-finals.

What counts next is how you move on. I like Johnson's reaction, making it clear that the performance needs improvement but also not making a big drama out of it. Today's pictures showing James Haskell and Chris Ashton bungee-jumping, as part of a white-water rafting adventure day with Ben Foden, Dylan Hartley, Nick Easter, Simon Shaw and Tom Palmer were good news. The atmosphere is relaxed before they get down to the hard work.

Jonny Wilkinson, not surprisingly, shunned all that to try to discover what went wrong with his kicking on Saturday. I suspect Johnson might be more concerned about his overall contribution at fly-half, though, and contemplating whether to bring in Toby Flood this weekend. It certainly makes [65.0] for Flood to be top points scorer a very tempting long odds punt.

England have some problems to deal with, but can be pleased that Courtney Lawes got only a two-game ban after being cited for catching Argentina hooker Mario Ledesma with his knee. The official guidelines raised the possibility of him being put out of the competition altogether. And the experience of game one should also help the forwards work out what they can, and can't, get away with at the breakdown. The penalty count was far too high on Saturday, and by the time the knockout stages come round, discipline will be the difference between winning and losing.

Saturday wasn't a great start, but it could have been far worse. Just ask the South Africans.

Five things you might not know about James Haskell
1. Born April 1985 in Windsor, his full name is James Andrew Welbon Haskell. Dad Jonathan and mum Susie run a fuels business

2 .As a boy he was a keen Wasps fan and used to hang around not only for autographs but to ask questions about the players' training regime

3. He's had sprint training from former 100m champion Margot Wells, wife of Olympic gold and silver sprint medallist Allan

4.Shortly after joining Wasps he greeted Lawrence Dallaglio's mum Eileen with the words: : "Hi, Mrs D, I'm the guy who is going to take your son's Wasps and England jerseys."

5.His musical taste is for dark electro, with Swedish House Mafia his favourite