Today's other rugby stories in brief

Howlett success

We cornered Doug Howlett under the stands in the Stade Velodrome in Marseille. Howlett had just scored a hat-trick against Italy and thereby equalled Christian Cullen's record of 46 international tries for the All Blacks. After the World Cup he follows in Cullen's footsteps in becoming Munster's second record-breaking signing.

"Myself and Christian are very good friends," said the poodle-topped winger. "I'm sure he'll be just as happy for me to take this record alongside him."

When pressed about his feelings at joining Paul O'Connell and the rest of the Munster lads (no time to ask the other obligatory question - about his Irish roots), Howlett, who is engagingly polite (a characteristic that will be surely put to the test in Ireland) said, "That's next year. But just at this moment I have to concentrate on this World Cup. But I'm looking forward to that (Munster)."

We say lets hope he has better luck than Christian.

Irish lads on thong

Interesting but not clever. The Municipal swimming pool in Bordeaux has a sign in the foyer illustrating the swimming attire that is obligatory for gentlemen. Bermudas and loose-fitting beach shorts are strictly no go and are represented on the graphic overwritten by a large X. But - quelle surprise - those scanty Speedos you last wore at school get a big thumbs up. And so the Ireland players have been issued with a set of the skintight items.

Strange that what is seen as criminal in some places is mandatory fashion in others.

Weather watch

T-shirts until seven easy. Three beers at happy hour and T-shirts until 8pm. Wine with dinner and T-shirts until 10pm. Shots at midnight, still in the T-shirt. Wake up with pneumonia.

Look, it's hot but not that ******* hot. Tickets to buy and sell

The New Zealand-Italy game in Marseille drew 58,612 people. Extrapolate to Bordeaux and the Ireland game against Namibia and we found ourselves yesterday expecting a few disappointed punters. But outside Stade Velodrome tickets were being freely touted as the Irish army finally seeped into town. The same will probably apply for the Georgia game later this week.

Quotes of the weekend

I enjoyed the dry ball and day-time footy.

- Two-try New Zealand captain and flanker Richie McCaw getting back to basics.

I am sure France will be a major factor as this competition goes on.

- Graham Henry subscribes to the consensus the French are not as shocking as they looked on Friday.

Ohata on the ball

Even though he is not in World Cup action in France, the Japanese winger Daisuke Ohata, who broke David Campese's world record for Test tries a few months months ago, continues to attract attention.

Ohata took his tally to 65, in only his 55th Test, to surpass Campese's 64 from 101 Tests.

But unlike the great Australian, Ohata scored only a fraction of his tries against major rugby nations.

"I doubt (Campese) would have expected a Japanese player to break his record," said the 30-year-old Ohata - to a chorus of "too bloody right". . .