By Jon Wilkin St Helens and England

For international rugby league to flourish, then we need a good World Cup. But what makes a good World Cup?

Well, in my opinion there has to be two goals. Firstly, matches need to be competitive. Secondly, the tournament needs to be a success from a financial point of view.

I can speculate about what may happen on the pitch, but it's best to see how things pan out. Every team will be determined to be competitive, that's for sure.

Reigning champions Australia are firm favourites to win the World Cup

The challenge for England and the other eight teams is to beat them. I'm sure there will be a few of us asking questions of the hosts, but we're going into the tournament full of hope and very positive about everything.

As for the World Cup being a hit financially after the problems of 2000, well, again we'll have to wait and see.

There's been a lot of talk about the England squad since it was announced by coach Tony Smith, but one thing it has is versatility. That's definitely one of its strong points.

Preparation has gone very well. In fact, it's hard to pick any faults in our build-up. All the i's and t's seem to have been dotted and crossed, leaving us players to focus on training, tactics and getting used to one another.

Part of our training has been spent inside special heat chambers at Liverpool John Moores University in a bid to combat the heat and humidity in Australia. We've been taking it in turns to sweat buckets on rowing machines, treadmills and bikes.

Now I'm really looking forward to seeing how we perform. The first big test will be against Papua New Guinea on 25 October.

It's hard to recreate a club environment at international level but we'll try to get as close to that as possible.

When you turn out against other players, you think you know how they think and how they play the game. But it always surprises me how different players turn out to be when I meet them in camp. Your perceptions can be completely turned on their head.

I'm going to be rooming in Oz with Paul Wellens - it appeared no-one else wanted to room with him, so I decided to step in out of sympathy

I'm going to be rooming in Oz with Paul Wellens, my St Helens team-mate. Each squad member had the opportunity to choose someone we felt comfortable with. Wello chose me, I didn't choose him.

He looked pretty desperate and teary-eyed when he came to ask me. It appeared no-one else wanted to room with him, so I decided to step in out of sympathy.

The whole episode probably re-opened some nasty wounds from Wello's childhood. I've been told he was always last to be picked when he played football in the playground.

I was impressed with England's 74-0 win over Wales on Friday. It was clinical and ruthless.

I was particularly impressed with England scrum-half Richie Myler. He had an outstanding game. He's got such a great instinct for the game and a great rugby brain. I get excited about watching him play.

If he trains hard and focuses on improving his game, I'm sure he�ll be in the international game for a long time to come.

* Jon Wilkin was talking to BBC Sport's Phil Gordos.

Jon will be filing regular reports from Australia throughout the tournament, which kicks off on Saturday, 25 October.