FYAHMIX

Rather like Jeremy Guscott, his celebrated predecessor in both Bath and England back divisions, he can petrify opponents as much by suggestion as by deed. The arrangement provides free accommodation, leaving only your travel expenses to pay. Rhodes raised his hand to acknowledge his error to his Gloucestershire team-mates, which was remarkable because his errors are so infrequent. He was more like himself when Anurag Singh played a ball gently into the covers, started for a run and stopped short when he saw Rhodes swooping in. Vikram Solanki played a shot to backward point and when the ball ran through the famously safe hands of Rhodes, the batsmen stole a quick single. Maybe the mighty Uruguay will give Woodward and company a game. But any discomfort the England coach is experiencing right now is as nothing compared to the agonies being suffered by South Africa, Georgia and Samoa, three of the red rose army's four immediate opponents in the forthcoming World Cup. England are now so strong in the back-three area that was once such a transparent weakness that the coach - armed with the likes of Jason Robinson, Josh Lewsey, Ben Cohen, James Simpson-Daniel and Dan Luger - could witness a serious Balshaw misfire at Stade V?drome today, draw a line through his name, and still fly to Perth with a smile on his visage.But a fit and firing Balshaw would add something magical to the mix.

And this is a chance, no question."If there is an urgency about the immediate situation, it is of Balshaw's creation rather than Woodward's. I was a couch potato, hanging around at home watching television with my arm in a sling and my foot in a cast."But my self-esteem was so low after the Lions tour that injury was the best thing for me It gave me the time to take a step back and chill out. I've gone back to being relaxed, just as I was when I arrived at Bath."The injuries were difficult to cope with. He does a lot of things well."Agassi, who lost to Sampras in last year's final, decided to pace himself en route to Flushing Meadows, this time by withdrawing from the Masters Series tournament in Cincinnati "I had enough matches over the summer," he said "It's very important for me to choose my tournaments I feel pretty good. Now that I'm back, I think I have a shot at a World Cup place It's all about playing well when you're given the chance. Clive Woodward seems genuinely disappointed that Joe Worsley, the increasingly influential loose forward from Wasps, injured his ankle during an innocuous training run in Aix-en-Provence and will miss this evening's Test with France in the Mediterranean stronghold of Stade V?drome.

Robinson has far more of the wing than the full-back in his union DNA, while Lewsey's tactical and positional indiscipline against New Zealand in Wellington in June led to his being re-positioned for the Test against the Wallabies in Melbourne the following week.At his best, Balshaw combines the finest attacking attributes of both men: Robinson's ability to beat the first-up tackler - and the second-up, as well - and Lewsey's talent for hitting the right angles from the right depth at the right time And that, in Woodward's book, adds up to gold dust.. Charl Willoughby, not in the Test side, took three wickets, with Kallis pouching two smart catches at second slip.Pakistan, inspired by Shoaib Akhtar's first 10-wicket Test haul, fought back to crush Bangladesh by nine wickets in Peshawar. Many people also find this type of holiday more relaxing than staying in a hotel."People like the authentic experience - being treated as a local instead of a bloody tourist," explains Jim Anderson, head of the UK branch of Home Link International. The property-swapping agency has 1,400 members in the UK and 12,700 worldwide.The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and the downturn in US visitors after the 11 September terrorist attacks dealt a blow to the growing popularity of international house swaps in the UK. However, Mr Anderson says the industry has bounced back during the past two years.You don't have to live in a manor house or a chic pied-?erre to do a house swap. A modest home close to Bath or in a Yorkshire village is likely to prove as popular as a swanky Chelsea flat. Not everyone wants to visit London; many overseas visitors head straight for Scotland or for areas such as Shakespeare country and the Lake District."People think it has to be a like-for-like home but it doesn't - it's about a sense of like-for-like with location," says Mr Anderson.The concept of house swapping has been around for some 50 years, but interest has surged recently thanks to the growth of internet-based home exchange agencies.