But we need to be alert and disciplined if we are to reach the next stage.Mark Evans is the chief executive of Harlequins. Newcastle’s director of rugby, Rob Andrew, has put his faith in youth for the new Zurich Premiership season – but this afternoon’s home game against his former club Wasps might prompt an early rethink. Liam Botham, the senior partner, switches to full-back for Dave Walder who broke a leg during a pre-season match against Edinburgh.Meanwhile, the London club have Lawrence Dallaglio and Rob Howley in harness at club level for the first time, at No 8 and scrum-half.Pieter Rossouw, capped 42 times by South Africa, will make his London Irish debut on the wing against Bath today. But the Exiles’ player-coach Brendan Venter is sidelined by an Achilles injury. In an echo of their problems last season, Bath are without Gareth Cooper, Mike Catt, Steve Borthwick, Andy Williams, Matt Perry and Iain Balshaw through injury while Dan Lyle is away on international duty with the US Eagles. Alessio Galassio, Ross Blake, Adam Vander, Jonathan Humphreys and Chris Malone will make their Bath debuts.Rotherham, denied promotion despite winning last season’s National League One, kick off their campaign today away to Yorkshire neighbours Otley.

Their main rivals are again likely to be Worcester, who battled to a 29-23 victory at Coventry yesterday.Exeter are top of the table after a 51-15 demolition of Wakefield in which Tony Yapp kicked 27 points, just ahead of Birmingham/Solihull, for whom the former Saracens fly-half Luke Smith supplied 18 points in a 35-10 win over London Welsh.The New Zealand scrum-half Justin Marshall has nominated South Africa as the team to watch leading up to next year’s World Cup. The 29-year-old, reflecting on the recent Tri-Nations series, said: “South Africa really surprised me. They have made real progress from last year and will have gained the most from this year’s Tri-Nations. They should be better again when the World Cup comes round.”Details of the ticketing arrangements for the 2003 Rugby World Cup, which kicks off with the holders, Australia, taking on Argentina in Sydney on 3 October, will be released by the Australian Rugby Union on Tuesday.The 25-year-old South African lock Phillip Clarke, who played for Bedford last season, is set to join the Italian side Ilcev Rovigo.. On Friday, angry Cardiff fans marched on the club’s offices because they hadn’t been sent their season tickets By 5pm yesterday, many were wishing they hadn’t bothered. By 5pm yesterday, many were wishing they hadn’t bothered.
It takes a special team to score 35 points without looking like winning, but Cardiff, if nothing else, are a special team.

Arms Park fans will say their side threw the Celtic League match away, but that is doing a great disservice to a spirited, hard-working Glasgow outfit.Led by their back row of Gordon Simpson, Donnie McFadyen and Jon Petrie, the Scots never gave up, and kept their heads while those in the other camp were losing theirs.Cardiff led 27-20 after a dazzling Rhys Williams try in the opening minute of the second half, but then ran out of ideas. Not to mention a working line-out, and handling skills.Tries to scrum-half Graeme Beveridge and Simpson gave Glasgow the lead, and unlike their opponents, they weren’t going to give it up lightly.The new Cardiff coach Dai Young – perhaps listening to the crowd asking “how many million quid did we pay for this guy?” every time league recruit Iestyn Harris did something – threw his entire bench on in the final 10 minutes. Big mistake.With the exception of scrum-half Richard Smith, every Cardiff replacement lost the ability to catch the ball, and scoring move after scoring move ended amid 6,500 groans. The clincher was the intercept pass snared by the Glasgow centre Alan Bulloch which took the Scots out to a 44-30 lead.With Petrie in the sin bin for a professional foul, Cardiff scored through their captain Martyn Williams deep into injury time, but the crowd’s pain wasn’t over.Needing the conversion to earn a bonus point, and facing a kick most of the fans would have backed themselves to get over, replacement Nick Robinson sprayed it left.Monty Python could not have scripted the second half. With 20 internationals in the starting line-ups, and a further nine on the benches, the game promised much And in terms of tries, it delivered. In terms of skill, well, let’s get back to the tries.Glasgow made a perfect start, retaining possession and marching up the field before a beautiful skip-out pass from the inside-centre Tommy Hayes gave winger Michael Bartlett the space to dive over in the left corner.Hayes, a Cook Islands international, showed how dangerous he could be this season with a superb touchline conversion, and the underdogs were 7-0 up.