Hamilton

Witnessing Wales dismantle Fiji in Hamilton, there were times when I thought I might be watching the 2011 World Cup winners.

And then I tuned in to see Ireland do a number on Italy. My oh my, next weekend's Celtic quarter-final bash in Wellington is going to be a barnburner - I haven't looked forward to a rugby match this much in years.

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Auckland

The New Zealand media have a lot of fun with what they perceive as the pompous attitude of English rugby journalists and fans: "You simple southern hemisphere folk fail to understand the intricacies of the game," goes the line. "All that fancy running and handling - 'proper' rugby is about grunt and grind, dour attrition and sticking it up your jumper."

While such a perception is overly simplistic, the neutrals who witnessed England v Scotland at Eden Park could be forgiven for wondering how 140 years of rivalry, 128 previous games - all that so-called sporting warfare - had failed to trigger an arms race and drag the northern hemisphere game out of the trenches.

The match was not without its tension and drama, that's for certain. One minute Scotland were through, then it was England. Then Scotland again. And finally England. Indeed, there will be a journalist in the northern hemisphere, somewhere, who will claim it was a game that could have been "scripted by Le Carré". Down south, they will take a dimmer view.

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Auckland

Down on Queens Wharf on Wednesday, I spotted several members of the England squad taking an evening constitutional. Followed every step of the way by a full Scottish pipe band. From where I was sitting, the England boys failed to see the funny side.

Kids' stuff, really, next to the ferocious and sometimes absurd build-up to the Grand Slam decider of 1990 - "I wasn't exactly leading the charge at Culloden," England captain Will Carling told one scheming Scottish journalist - but proof, if proof was needed, that you cannot beat a rugby international between the Auld Enemies for fun, games and trickery.

The Thursday before that 1990 Calcutta Cup encounter, hooker Brian Moore slipped a copy of Shakespeare's Henry V into Carling's hands, opened at Act III, scene I: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends" and all that. England manager Martin Johnson, on the other hand, is rather more prosaic: "There is a lot of history there," said Johnson. "But that is all for the build-up and the exterior. It is about us playing well. If we do that we will put ourselves in a good place."

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