By Nick Mullins BBC rugby union commentator

A week on from the smiles of the English rugby fan are the snarls of his cricketing counterpart.

The post-mortems are already under way after the Ashes debacle.

England captain Nasser Hussain says his game needs a shake-up from top to bottom.

If cricket's bosses at Lord's are looking for inspiration, then a short trip south across the Thames to Twickenham might prove instructive.

Whatever the haggling and heartache that has gone into producing a professional structure in English rugby - and there are still some miles to travel yet - it is clearly beginning to work.

Woodward has a lot to smile about

England didn't see off New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in successive weekends by chance.

They did it because the players have been given a framework which allows them to compete with and beat the very best in the world.

While the age of professional rugby is only seven years old, the roots of English success can be traced back another eight years to the formation of leagues.

Incidentally, the 1987/88 season was doubly significant.

At the same time Australia's rugby players gave England an Ashes-style walloping Down Under and the game was swallowing a bitter pill.

The original Courage Clubs Championship didn't meet with universal approval at the time.

In the intervening years, it has gone through several transitions and is now called the Zurich Premiership, but the song remains the same.

It is there to sort out the wheat from the chaff, to provide club players with the highest level of competition each week and to therefore provide England with skilled, motivated and finished articles.

As I watched Leicester play Northampton on Saturday, I thought that this was a proper stage for budding World Cup-winners.

Both sides had international stars from the previous three weeks but this time the English heroes were locking horns rather than linking arms.

The Zurich Premiership is still a long way from perfection

It was Martin Johnson, Ben Kay, Austin Healey and Tim Stimpson against Matt Dawson, Ben Cohen, Steve Thompson and Robbie Morris.

The rucks, mauls and back-moves were also loaded with top-name internationals from other countries.

Compare that to another East Midlands sporting occasion, the fourth day of a County Championship match between Derbyshire and Durham idling towards a draw.

The cream of English cricketers have a right to expect better, to expect the same kind of competitive environment as their rugby compatriots.

Of course, the Premiership is still a long way from perfection.

There is the barmy idea that the team who finish third at the end of the season might still get to call themselves champions, and I am yet to be convinced either way about the issue of relegation.

But there are enough similarities between rugby and cricket in terms of popularity, professionalism, player burn-out and the all-important bottom-line for the two to share and prosper.

The first winners of the Premiership back in 1988 were Leicester.

Northampton, meanwhile, were being relegated to Division Three.

It was a time when rugby began to learn that professional sport at the rarest altitudes is an unforgiving experience.

It still is - ask Nasser.