IT was not a great opening World Cup weekend for the Six Nations sides - in stark contrast to performances delivered by New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

Wales will probably feel happiest, given the way they finished against Canada, but England were very poor against America. At the moment, I don't really know what they are doing.

Everyone seems to put a lot of stall on this word 'physicality,' but it applies to all teams now, even the so-called smaller nations.

Everyone can go to the gym and bulk themselves up, so you will get a physical aspect from all the sides to their performances.

With South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, but especially Australia and New Zealand, their rugby and game awareness was so far above anyone else it was incredible.

Their footballing ability meant they could take out the physical aspect of the opposition, although there is no doubt in my mind that Italy completely froze against the All Blacks.

Yes, the Italians were blown away tactically, but they played the jersey, not the opposition players. They froze, just as France did in the opening game against Argentina.

Ireland had really stuttered in their pre-World Cup games, and their 32-17 victory over Namibia showed that if you are not going to play with tempo in this tournament then you will struggle.

During the Wales game against Canada yesterday, when Wales were behind at half-time I had a few concerned texts from my mates, and it did look a bit worrying for a time.

But the good thing was that Gareth Jenkins was brave enough to make the decision to change things. It was a brave change and a good tactical change with Stephen Jones going on for James Hook after 48 minutes.

James Hook and Stephen Jones will both have big roles to play in this World Cup, and certainly against Australia in Cardiff next Saturday, whether coming off the bench or not.

What Stephen Jones did was just impose his authority on the whole game. He said 'right, this is changing'. He knew it wasn't happening for Wales, and then the game loosened up and the Canadians began tiring.

With the right tactics, that maybe should have happened after 25 or 30 minutes, not 50 minutes. Stephen is a different player to James Hook.

James is a very special player, but so is Stephen Jones in a different way.

When Stephen came on he was more direct. He changed the focus of attack, and once Wales cut Canada behind the scrum, Tom Shanklin and Shane Williams came into their own and it was a different game altogether.

In contrast, there is no escaping the fact England were very poor. I am not sure what sort of game they were trying to play.

There was no kind of game awareness with them. Playing against America, they are physically powerful and you know they can tackle, so why take it to them up through the middle?

England players were just running into people. There was no creativity behind the scrum whatsoever, no dummy runners. They relied on their bulk.

England are not going to outmuscle South Africa at the Stade de France on Friday night, that's the first thing that has to be said.

There has been no use of Jason Robinson, or hardly any use of Mark Cueto. At this stage, I don't really know what they are doing.

Of all the home nations, Wales will be the happiest because they started poorly but ended very strongly.

When they play with tempo and pace and get over the gain-line, they have the ability to worry any side in the tournament.

They have got a cutting edge, maybe more so than the other home nations. With England, Scotland and Ireland, that didn't look the case.

Wales finished well, once they got their runners going, and there is no doubt home advantage will be massive when they tackle Australia.