You expect a certain amount of whinging from England. Usually they are packaged with a warning about the level of complaints around them.

By all accounts he is a decent fellow and according to the team handbook emulated Williams Webb Ellis as a 7-year-old when he "picked up a rugby ball and has never really looked back".

As those who have run into him know, there is very little give in Ma'a Nonu which is why he has hinted at rather than outright declared his intention to pop England's Manu Tuilagi in his back pocket this Saturday.

England captain Chris Robshaw is extremely proud of the squad they have, 'this is the place and this is the team you want to test yourself against'. This is the game and the place they'll find out what they're all about.

England centre Jonny May has nothing but respect for the All Blacks, 'they're the best team in the world, they have been throughout my life'. Lock, Joe Launchbery is looking forward to be put to the test against the best in the world.

Kieran Read and Sam Cane have both been ruled out of the first All Blacks test against England, while Julian Savea is in doubt.

England assistant coach Graham Rowntree knows first hand what it's like to win against the All Blacks, he says 'it's all about self belief at the end of the day 'we have enough on our plate without being in awe of the All Blacks'.

It was a case of lock up your daughters and mini-bars way more than it was lock up your defence on England's last few visits to New Zealand but that might not be the case this time around.

There we were starting to believe in England when they go and do something silly. They have selected Danny Cipriani and, with that, all credibility has disappeared.

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.

Some of the thousands of British and Irish Lions fans descending on Sydney this weekend for the third and final, decisive rugby test against the Wallabies could find themselves spending the night in "sobering-up centres".

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

Robbie Deans carries the impassive stare of a man who would do well in the Las Vegas casinos.