pummelled 46-7 by South Africa, national coach Peter Shillingford finds himself in the same unenviable position.

Next Tuesday, the Island team make another Classic appearance -- and again their opening round opponents are South Africa.

But, fresh from winning the Caribbean Championships in Freeport, Bahamas, the Bermuda squad are optimistic that this time around they can give a better account of themselves.

"I think we treated them with too much respect last year. If you do that they will take that extra yard and capitalise on it,'' said Shillingford. "We have to be straight up, hard in the tackle, meet them face to face, play hard, competitive rugby and do all of the things that we have been trying in practice.'' The coach isn't about to predict an upset victory but he at least hopes his highly fancied opponents will be made to earn any points they put on the board.

"Last year we played reasonably well against them, we had a couple of bad injuries with one blow being the departure of Bobby Hurdle who suffered a broken collar bone in the opening minute of play,'' recalled Shillingford.

"But obviously they are one of the elite teams in the world and full of international players who are fit, strong and powerful ... it's going to be a good experience for the players and that's the way we are treating it, really.'' While nobody expects Bermuda to come close to winning, many will hope the final score can be closer than a year ago.

One problem that the coach hasn't had to face during training is that of players lacking in enthusiam or harbouring an inferiority complex. Momentum is still high from winning the Caribbean Cup this summer and the squad are keen to show improvement.

"It was a good win down there in Freeport and it was a good stepping stone for the boys. This kind of competition is a step higher and is good for us.

You have always got to put yourself up against the best players and these obviously are a better class than we are. The only way you are going to see where you stand or be able to improve is to play against them,'' said Shillingford, who was in charge of the squad in the Classic for the first time last year having taken over from Keiron Peacock.

"We will be looking for the luck of the bounce, to put them under pressure and hope that they make a couple of mistakes and hopefully we will be able to sneak by with a couple of points.'' While some might argue that Bermuda don't deserve a place in a tournament which boasts some of the world's truly great players, Shillingford disagrees.

"I've always supported the inclusion of a Bermuda team, we should be the first on the list. It's good for the players, the fans and the event and many of the foreign players also support the entry of the Bermuda team,'' he said.

Bermuda squad: Dave Lunn, Billy Tempest-Mitchell, Rob Steinhoff, Billy McNiven, Bobby Hurdle, Dennis Cherry, Shane Gill, Rod Stewart, Dave Bird, Sean Field-Lament, Patrick Cooper, Gareth Davies, Josh McGavern, Phil Heaney, Alan Oliver, Rob Morgan, Keith Hodgkins, Greg Lunn, Alvin Harvey, Andy Trinder, Gavin Corcoran.

This year's World Rugby Classic will again feature a slate of top referees, led by Welshman Derek Bevan.

Bevan is regarded as the most experienced ref in international rugby with a record 35 international matches under his belt.

His first international was the clash between England and Romania in 1985 and this was followed six years later with the honour of refereeing the World Cup final.

Three other top officials here for the Classic are John Pearson of England, Paddy Tynan of Ireland and Hugh Banfield of Wales.

Pearson started his international career in 1995 when he took charge of the game between France and Wales. He makes a return to the Classic as does Tynan, who has officiated European Cup games as well as at the Caribbean Sevens.

Banfield, who has refereed a number of `B' Internationals and European Cup matches, is making his first appearance in Bermuda.