I was so stunned by his first dance I couldn't stop watching it!

I had the same feeling about Mark Ramprakash when he first appeared with that snake-hip cha-cha.

I know people said Tom looks smug, but I still think it might be his saying he's a heart-throb and clever editing made him seemed he's very pleased with himself.

But for Austin, he looks unassuming. Taking the competition seriously but still having fun (taking a mickey out of himself and Erin). Let's hope he does latin well...

Well there's one major difference already - I was never impressed with Mark's ballroom and Austin's is great so far.

I hope not as I was never a fan of Mark's. Tom is more like Mark than Austin, although I like them both. It would make a good storyline to have a rugby player finally winning SCD.

It might be the other way round for Austin. He might be a maestro in ballroom but struggle with latin. But seeing him do the 'caterpillar' in the clip this might not be what I feared. Maybe he'll indeed be good with his latin...

Not been in here before but wanted to see what people had to say about Austin Healy he is a bit of a legend for me as a rugby player and his Autobiography is one of the funniest most entertaining books I have read.

He was such a charactor as a player and he competed with Matt Dawson and Kyran Bracken for the 9 position for some time with dawson always a bit in front of him so I reckon he will be wanting to win it.

He is the ultimate competitor and was one of the fittest men in the sport he really is a charactor he comes across as very arrogant but I think that is actually a front.

I will have a eye on the show but I hope he does well.

An over-hyped male celebrity? Probably.

Austin surpassed my expectations. He's shone straight away.

I think Mark took a little longer to warm up. But sometimes it's more fun watching a gradual development than someone who peaks very early.

Time will tell

It is difficult to form opinions on one dance but he just took it in his stride and seemed to have a good attitude. I really thought he would struggle but his dance was great and I am looking forward to seeing him do the latin. I hope we wont be disappointed.

I sicerely hope he becomes the next mark!!! He was great.

Marks best dances were his latin i think for Austin it'll be ballroom.
They're both quite modest so they have that in common and i do think Austin will train just as hard as Mark did.
Other then that i think there personalities are very different.

Austen deserved top of the leader board - but is my memory playing tricks? Was Ramps favourite from week 1?

Its very early days, until we see his latin we cant say. Colin was good from the start yet didnt win. Think Tom will be good at both. Austin's personality will help, well it did for Darren Gough. Hope Austin wins though.

With the bookies or on here?

Iirc correctly Emma was fav with the bookies but Mark was fav on here.

I don't think he will be the next Mark, as I doubt he will be so natural in the latin. He will obviously do very well though in the competition.

Was it the pecs?

If so Mark Foster is in with a fighting chance.

On this forum Mark was topping it from week one as was Alesha last year. So we got it right on here twice in a row despite the bookies initially getting it wrong both times!
Not sure this year though as i have a feeling a celeb on a "journey" may take the trophy....

He was joint leader week 1 with Ray and Spoony. i'm not sure he was a favourite to win but always looked like he would be there or there abouts.

Have to reserve judgement until we see how Austin copes with the latin .... at first outing his ballroom is already superior to that of Mark Ramps. But Mark's latin was good.

They have had one year's rest from the hunky sportsman shows artistic side story so it may come back for a third outing. Its incredibly predictable though. Its also not much of a journey story when he starts better than Matt Dawson finished. Andrew is a bit removed from the sportsman past and has a GMTV story too so he might do well. Tom might do well unless someone is much better which Austin and some girls seem to be.

The female opposition has story problems too though - the good females seem to be Rachel (who repeats Alesha) and the girl from the one show who repeats Natasha. Lisa might be a new model of model winner but not sure she is as good yet.

Austin will have the same problem as Matt Dawson did with Ramprakash.

However he dances he won't be as attractive/sexy to certain female voters as Tom is.

That's one of the reasons I never warmed to Ramps, because I felt that the totty vote was swaying the results.

Austin Healey was a more versatile rugby player than Matt Dawson. Dawson was an out and out scrum half, whereas Healey played scrum half, fly half and on the wing. Conclusion for the sake of SCD: Healey is a better all round athlete than Matt Dawson, and probably more likely to be a better latin dancer.

I saw a video with the two of them having have a little banter about this which was quite funny.
I also think Austin is naturally a lot more confident than Matt is. From what I've seen Austin will be desperate to beat Matt's second place position. It's going to be hard because the only thing better than that is winning but he will go all out to try and Erin is an excellent partner for him

Watching Erin train Colin Jackson, I think she'll nail the ballroom (she already has) with Austin. But Erin's latin wasn't as good (didn't know what the fuss was about with her rhumba with Colin), so Austin might be at a 'disadvantage' here.

But it seems at least Austin seemed to be enjoying his training with Erin already and they hit it off really well. Austin is the dark-horse (albeit an early one).

Thank God Andrew has potential!

Can't wait to see Rachael and the girls dance next week!

Not really. When you look at the standard of latin for male celebs on Strictly Colin was one of the best. Erin is not going to be much of disadvantage for Austin.

Not being able to watch the entire series 3 (except mostly through youtube), I would say the men in series 3 (even Darren Gough) were rather horrible at their latin numbers. So yes, Colin's probably the 'best' among the worst, I supposed....

BUT, there's snake-hip Tom Chambers (smugness notwithstanding). If Tom does ballroom just as well as his latin (and if the Fred Astiresque tap dance routine he made shown in youtube is any indication then I believe he's going to be an all-rounder), Austin would have to let his assuming personality shine through in order to get the votes if he's latin is even only slight worse than his ballroom.

His ballroom is indeed a revelation. Very good top-line and clean footwork.