NOW is the time for Wales to benefit from their warm weather training in Lanzarote in September and their use of hot air blowers at the Vale of Glamorgan.

For it's seriously hot in Brisbane, way up into the nineties in the sun, and while it's a good thing the kick off for Sunday's World Cup quarter-final against England is at 8pm, training this week and playing in the actual match could be an arduous business.

And to think that the taxi driver for the journey to the Wales headquarters this morning said about the weather, 'You haven't seen anything yet!'

Wales are making waves away from the Gold Coast they visited early this week thanks to that terrific performance against the All Blacks.

Aussies are still forecasting a defeat against England, but by no more than 15 points, and Shane Williams is listed as one of eight game breakers left in the tournament.

The whole atmosphere has stepped up with extra Welsh supporters on their way out to Australia for Sunday's showdown.

They will discover what a delightful place Brisbane is, a city on a river with its Kookaburra River Queen boats, gorgeous weather, quayside cafes and restaurants, an attractive shopping centre, impressive buildings, top class hotels, botanic gardens, Irish bars, the beaches of the Gold Cost half-an-hour away and koala bears. The list goes on.

* The Scots, meanwhile, continue to slope off to practice their line-out drills in the gardens next to that sign saying team sports are strictly prohibited.

Birds of the feathered variety are all over the gardens, and one old man this morning who looked as though he didn't have two dollars to rub together was surrounded by hundreds of the birds as he broke about 20 bread rolls to feed them. A heartwarming sight.

Then, to my shame, the only female reporter out here, working for a London-based rugby magazine, stopped in her running gear, saying she, like our fanatical colleague, goes for a lengthy run every day. In this weather!

I'll stick with lying by the pool for an hour in the mornings before the round of Press conferences and interviews begin, England's inconveniently at around 6pm, which is 8am in the UK, and involves a near heart attack every day trying to get the story over in time for the evening paper deadline.

England hard man Phil Vickery was being interviewed for TV yesterday when the camera crew met with a problem, the lighting suddenly going and the process coming to an abrupt halt.

Quick as a flash from the camera Vickery said, 'If in doubt give it a clout.' Sounds like the rugby philosophy of a Gloucester prop who is a farmer from Cornwall.