Everyone wearing the red shirt of Wales in our hospitality facility had to put up with my overly confident pre match prediction of England smashing the Welsh yesterday! A chorus that was repeated by hosts joining me for the day, Peter Richards and Matt Perry.

Things were going according to plan in the first half and I felt the end result would be a lot more than I expected. I was bragging of an England grand slam in the making, sat next to my Sales Executive who happens to be welsh. I even threw a bet in the mix re grand slamming England. Luckily for me she refused the bet!

Suddenly, the switch was turned off. England's game completely deteriorated and at the same time Wales brilliantly succeeded where England had failed, by turning possession into points; scoring two well deserved tries. 

Post match Simon Shaw, Lee Mears, Matt Stevens and Mark Regan popped into our facility - see photo gallery They were all too gutted by the result and couldn't explain where & how it all went wrong.

Third time lucky next year in Cardiff, I hope!

I would put down tomorrow’s game as the biggest of my career. Despite last week’s performance I would say we were still underdogs. However, even though the French have got home advantage that brings with it extra pressure. As we do with all opponents we have spotted a few weaknesses but I am not going to let you know what those are the day before the game. It was hardly a secret last week that we knew the Aussies would struggle in the scrum but with the French it is not quite so obvious.

It is great to have an unchanged team, the first time for a long time. Fantastic for me to be starting again and I really can’t wait to get stuck into the game. This season it is 2-1 to the French so let’s see if we can even it up on Saturday night in Paris.

A lot of the publicity appears to be around Chabal and there is no doubt he is a good player. However all of us have come up against him both on the international circuit and in the league and we feel that we can more than match the danger. It is great for his profile to have long hair and a big beard. In fact I would consider growing my hair and facial hair if there was a contract on offer from a razor company. Around £1 million would do it for me.

The atmosphere is going to be fantastic and the noise will be amazing. I have heard that there will be as many as 40,000 English fans in the stadium which is going to mean a hell of a lot to us. I know we have got the performance inside us and we are just two games away from remaining World Champions.

I thought I would bore you today with a few things I do on the day of a game. I get up about 10am when it is an evening kick-off. Breakfast is the big meal of the day for me and is likely to be a bit of salmon some eggs and beans. I will then go and chill out for a bit in my room and maybe catch a DVD with The Dominator (see previous posts). There has been a lot of talk about the team listening to Kenny Rogers and a few have been singing his songs during training. However I build up to the game with a bit of gangster rap – as many of you will know I am a very ‘street’ person. I will nibble on a bit of pasta for lunch and then at about 6.30ish we will leave for the stadium. There will be a bit of work out on the pitch with Graham Rowntree our forwards coach, particularly on the lineout. Then it is into the changing room put on the England jersey and start to cherish the moment. I will try and get a bit more of my gangster rap going and then it is out onto the pitch. I am one for singing the National Anthem, although probably not in tune. I hope that gives you a little idea about what I will be up to tomorrow.

Vic has invited me over to join the VU lot for a bit of Sunday lunch so I probably will do that, as long as it is not burgers and chips – you can have too much of a good thing.

Bit of a different offering today – I am going to include a few VU clients on the posting. Last weekend was probably the busiest ever for us. Not only THE match of the tournament, but we also had a large group on a classic train from London to Cardiff for that other big match – New Zealand v France.

Marseille was just incredible; I am still trying to get over it. England were better than their two point win – I just don’t know where that performance came from. It is a result that has transformed this Rugby World Cup. I thought the forwards were just a different class. My mate and fellow blogger Ronnie Regan put in a fantastic performance and I am glad so many of you are enjoying his postings.

On Sunday Ronnie and his fellow hooker Lee Mears came to our beautiful villa in Marseille to join the VU lot for a bit of a celebration. It was great hearing from the boys and you can tell that this is a tight squad. I don’t think Ronnie had any right to criticise my lack of training in his last blog. I can’t wait to see what he looks like seven years after retiring.

Just gearing up now for the semi final weekend and another big one for me and the VU team. This has been an incredible tournament and just keeps getting better. I can’t decide if the French victory was more surprising that the English one but it sets up a classic for Paris.

As I said at the start this is going to be a bit of a different blog. Because even I could not be in two places at once I could not join the trip on the Northern Belle from London to Cardiff. What I did was get some of the comments from those on the train and they are bellow.

We had arranged for All Black legend Justin Marshall to be on board and I suspect it was a very long journey home for him. So here are some of the comments and let’s hope the game on Saturday is half as good as the quarters. France v England, Rugby World Cup 2007 – who would have thought it.

The first quote has to be from Mr Marshall. Wisely we spoke to him before the games had kicked off and it looks like he should have put his money where his mouth is as far as England are concerned. I don’t think he was up for going on the record after the defeat!

 ‘Everyone is on England’s case at the moment but at the end of the day, people love the underdogs to do well so the support is still great for the England team.  If England go on and win today, the match tonight between France and the All Blacks will have so much more bearing for all the people on the trip as England will play them next. England has some fantastic players in the team despite the negative comments and I fancy them to do well but let’s hope not too well!’ 

 Here are some more thoughts from those on the trip:

Louis Jones – ‘It was really good fun being on the train with people listening to the England versus Australia match on their portable radios and cheers going up and down the carriages. Arrived in plenty of time to have a few drinks in Cardiff and everyone was well looked after.’

Ben – ‘As a Munster supporter I have come here to really enjoy the whole package even if Ireland are not around.  It’s a great way to meet people on the train and chat to fellow rugby fans in some really flashy surroundings. There was a great atmosphere on the train on the way and back which may have been to do with the fine wine and champagne on offer!’

James – ‘I just hope that it is a repeat of the 1999 semi final! Shame not to meet Victor but I assume he is away sunning himself in Marseilles and I don’t blame him!’

Bill – ‘The match was great, really physical but at the end of the day, I was sad not to see Ireland in there with the other northern hemisphere teams that are left in the competition.