WORCESTER Warriors and Wales prop Chris Horsman with the third of his World Cup diaries.

I AM really pleased to have been named in Wales' starting XV for tonight's match with Japan at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

There will be a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium - it was brilliant for the Australia game and I am expecting more of the same tonight.

I have only played a few evening kick-offs there, but the atmosphere is always amazing. The fans come straight from work or school to the game and there is always a real buzz.

We have got to go out there with plenty of confidence and the most important thing is for us to get a win - if we don't, our chances of reaching the quarter-finals will not be too good. We will be treating Japan with respect, but we want to go out and make a statement Japan are a technically well-drilled side and they are fantastically coached by former All Blacks coach John Kirwan - I expect a fast, exciting game.

It is quite tough when you have trained hard all summer and, when it gets to the business end, you are left out. Obviously you want the side to do well, but it is fairly lonely on game day.

It is difficult as I am one of only two players in the squad who do not play in the region. The management do not need to look too far outside of the Magners League to pick their team.

But now I have been given my chance to impress in the starting XV, I am hoping to take it with both hands. Now it is up to me to nail down my place for the rest of the tournament.

Even though I haven't played up until now, I have been doing extra conditioning work with Mark Bennett and the other coaches and working really hard in training. I have looked at my game for areas to improve and I have pushed myself hard I have been having a great time at the World Cup. The squad have been working really hard in training and those of us who haven't been playing - we have called ourselves the DTs, which stands for the Dirt Trackers - have formed a bond together and got on really well.

There is still plenty of banter going on, but after last week's sheep-in-the-hotel-room incident - which meant the whole block had to be fumigated - we have had to rein it in a bit.

The spirits are still really high though and there is still the odd practical joke -Will James has woken Dafydd James up by putting a heated spoon on his neck a couple of times!

After the Japan game, we are going back to our base in Nantes and we have a while before the Fiji game.

We will have a couple of days of down time - it is important for us to rest mentally as well as physically -- and some of the guys will be going go-karting.

Back at Worcester, the guys should not get too despondant after losing to Bath - The Rec is always a tough place to go and win. They have to look to build on the postitives from the game.