Kevin Miles is getting ready for his fourth World Cup as the representative of England's travelling fans and it looks likely to be his most challenging yet.

The 2006 tournament was relatively stress-free for the 48-year-old Geordie. The short haul meant thousands of supporters were able to make last-minute trips to Germany and they discovered excellent transport, plentiful accommodation and sympathetic policing when they arrived.

More than 150,000 England fans travelled out in total, dwarfing the support of just about every other nation, and things went so well that they were named fans of the tournament by Fifa.

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The 96 names in England's senior, Saxons and Under-20 squads are neatly arranged in colour-coded rows on a wall of Rob Andrew's Twickenham office.

He's been busy rejigging them in recent weeks, following injuries to a dozen players in Martin Johnson's senior squad.

Next month's autumn internationals, against Australia, Argentina and New Zealand, will be the benchmark of the progress Andrew has made since becoming England's first director of elite rugby three years ago.

His remit then was to "develop young rugby talent through the elite player pathway".

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