As the All Blacks sign off from their initial training camp, England coach Stuart Lancaster has talked about challenging the world's best in their own backyard.

For All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, England are the perfect opposition to play as he seeks to draw a line under his team's unbeaten exploits of last year.

James Haskell has a gift for getting noticed but after the controversies, business ventures and celebrity girlfriends, he hopes to catch the eye of one person in particular.

It will not have escaped the notice of Mike Brown, England's serial man-of-the-match award winner in the Six Nations, that his next assignment is against the ABs.

Wales prop Gethin Jenkins has acknowledged that a number of senior players will be fighting for their international careers in today's mouthwatering Six Nations clash against France at the Millennium Stadium.

England's three-cap centre Luther Burrell has to find a way to control the 139-test Ireland legend Brian O'Driscoll - and he cannot wait to have a go.

Few other kids have the natural skills and spatial awareness that New Zealand youngsters have. It's a natural byproduct of time spent with the ball and the eagerness to emulate their heroes at the top level of the national game.

The big news out of the England camp is that Twickenham has an upgraded changing room - all part of their master-plan to not only beat the All Blacks on Sunday, but to win the World Cup in 2015.

There is a quirk in the history of the Six Nations that makes uncomfortable reading for fans.

Based on the form shown in the June tests, New Zealand and South Africa are half a length ahead of the other leading international sides. Two years out from the next World Cup, and these two are the most likely winners.

Hardly worth the bother of a contestable process in 2011, the All Black coaching job could be fiercely contested after the World Cup in 2015, with Warren Gatland, should he fancy it, presumably in the forefront of any challengers.

Sorry, but the tale of the drunken ducks is far more credible than the contention that Horwill did not stomp on Jones, writes Paul Lewis.

Touring Australia with the Lions, a tilt at the Commonwealth Games next season, a World Cup in 2015 and a repeat Lions trip to New Zealand in four years time.

The detail is still be worked out but hopes are already high that the British and Irish Lions will generate in excess of $25 million in profit for New Zealand rugby when they tour in 2017.

Subplots regularly threaten to overpower the main act in Australian rugby.

The Lions have got more than a test series to win on Saturday night, writes Chris Rattue. They need to discover a spirit for the game and restore some excitement and honour.

The remarkable George Smith will start his 111th and final test for the Wallabies in Saturday's series-deciding test against the Lions.

Comparisons were made at the 2011 World Cup but now they seem much more real. Is George North this era's Jonah Lomu?

The British and Irish Lions are set to share a jackpot of £2.3 million ($4.6 million) if Warren Gatland's side clinch the series against Australia in Melbourne.

The lingering whiff of the 38-21 loss to England last December still festers among the All Blacks.

Three weeks ago a disconsolate Tommy Bowe texted his touring relatives to say they would not see him play again for the Lions.

Many Australians trace the nation's obsessive interest in sport to the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 when the arrival of broadcast television coincided with the festival.

These likely lads are no strangers to controversy and, at the very least, should be cashing in some of their chips.

A handful of rugby players are born into Lionhood and the very best of them, the creme de la creme, grow to their fullest size in the red jersey. Brian O'Driscoll is among that number.