World Cup demands greater on-field entertainment from England to match throbbing after-party at Twickenham The 2015 tournament has been expertly presented as the kid brother of the London 2012 Olympics: a national event, framed to show off our best virtues of passion and warmth. The urge to extend the competition beyond rugby union's heartland is entirely honourable. The two fixtures at Brighton's Amex Stadium are understood to have been deluged with 290,000 applications for around 60,000 seats, which points to healthy "event-curiosity." Those who missed out - my family included - will have to settle for a big screen on Brighton beach and a whiff of the ambience floating across the Downs. The Rugby Football Union has its Great Leap Forward all mapped out, at grass-roots and for coaches and referees. World Cup fixtures meanwhile will carry an edge no autumn international could have. England's four Tests were inevitably seen as trials for the real thing, in which vital signs and markers would become visible. Did they? Not really. Despite the win over their Pool A rivals Australia (a feat matched by France and Ireland), England head into Christmas knowing only that Ben Youngs and George Ford look the best half-back combination, while all else is up for grabs, even at full-back, where Alex Goode would offer more subtlety than Mike Brown, that pugnacious, direct runner. The floating viewer - the one rugby is desperate to convert - would not have slogged through all four England matches with heart aflutter. He or she would have admired the almost ridiculous self-sacrifice of Chris Robshaw, Morgan's hellfire at No8, Ford's usurping of Owen Farrell at No10, Courtney Lawes" disregard for his own safety and Brad Barritt's impersonation of a prize-fighter in round 12. Noted too, was some dazzling Australian back play, which too often came to naught, New Zealand's talent for going up through the gears and South Africa's refusal to lose to an England side. The Springboks have not been conquered since 2006 and Lancaster's men have lost four in a row to New Zealand. The Australia win at least improves their prospects of making it out of their World Cup group. For a while back there it threatened to turn ugly for the northern hemisphere, but by the series end Australia had been beaten three times and Wales had finally scored a hit south of the equator with the 12-6 win over South Africa in a game which one reporter suggested merited a 70p ticket price rather than the £70 it actually cost. So was it a feast of rugby from Nov 8-29? No, and the sport needs to do more to encourage skill and enterprise if it is to hook fans outside the cognoscenti. You can cram as many punters as you like into the Ruck & Maul bar, and keep the post-match gig going so long it feels like a package holiday, but without good rugby the game will not draw a new congregation.