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The weekend has come and gone along with our hopes of being crowned World Champions in at least one high profile sport.

I and millions of others sat down to watch England try and become the first side to retain the Rugby World Cup, on Saturday only to see the Springboks prove to strong.  Funnily enough the talk before the game was of the mistakes that the South Africans had been making throughout the tournament and how Jonny would be able to take full advantage of them.  Unfortunately it was the English boys, who made the mistakes, and always right in front of the posts to make it an easy conversion. That coupled with not being able to win our own line outs in kep positions, meant we only ever looked like scoring a try once and that was taken away by an Austalian  - poetic justice there I guess - where are the Russian linesmen when you need them?

In the end though it was the South African’s defence that win the match for them and although we all felt disappointed we should remember that England started the World Cup as 80/1 to retain it and did well to get as close as they did.  Let’s hope they can build on the experience and turn it on in the 6 NAtions next time around.

Then there was Sunday.  At least we could rely on Lewis Hamilton to restore some pride!  Wrong again.  I missed the start and tuned in with 20 laps to go and Hamilton 40 plus seconds behind the 5th place he needed to be.  Ironic that his car should elt him down at the last hurdle but strangely satisfying that Alonso didn’t pip him to it, or is that just me?  There is of course the appeal that McLaren will launch but I wont hold my breath and I wouldn’t like to see him win like that, especially after the other scandal that has dogged the sport this year. 

The FIA have to be careful - there are so many rules and regulations that they are in danger of turning people off the sport.  It ceased to be about the best driver years ago, but it should certainly not be about which team has the best lawyers.

All in all not the best week for British Sport, especially with the the Football team looking likely to drop out of Euro 2008.  If that happens I might need to go off on holiday for a month next year.  Somewhere away from all Television.

On the upside at least the Pompey boys won away from home again to maintain there 5th spot in the Premiership, although it was yet another controversial weekend for referees. FIFA should definitely look at the use of video technology to avoid such controversy….

So England made the semi-finals against all the odds having turned over the Ozzies and were expected by most people on the know to get thrashed by the French, who would surely be bouyed by a huge partisan crowd in the Stade de France.  It was not to be. 

If we are to believe the rumours, the England Rugby World Cup team have turned their performances around and motiviated themselves by playing the “The Gambler” a well known Kenny Rodgers song.  (Kenny Rodgers is a country and western singer for those not so well versed as the England Rugby team).

Unlike their predecessors it seems this team thrive on being the underdogs and the doom merchants insisting they have no chance.  Let’s hope this continues for the final where South Africa are clear favourites and would have been even if they hadn’t thrashed us 36-0 earlier in the tournament.  The good news is that not only has no side ever retained the Web Ellis Trophy but also no team have ever won it having lost a game in the group stages.  So really nothing to lose then!

Overall Saturday’s match was not a great spectacle but as I mentioned a long time ago now when talking about the England football team, sometimes its good to win ugly.  I’m sure if England grind out another close win on Saturday having spent 40 minutes kicking the ball about rather than running in 5 tries that there will be few people chastising them for it!

So 24 hours to go before the weekend starts and England take on the world.  So much energy, time and coverage has been given to our rugby squad that little Lewis Hamilton has slipped under the radar. 

He faces up to Fernando Alonso on Sunday, aiming to become the first British World Champion since Nigel Mansell.  Lets hope that if we wins and then takes the Sports Personality of the Year Award that he makes a more interesting speech than our Nigel managed! 

Then there is the rugby of course.  England are still the underdogs, which they will love, but this is a World Cup Final and anything can happen with nerves playing a massive part.  The constant negativity appears to have motivated the team and instilled in them  a desire to prove everybody wrong - well the negativity combined with Kenny Rodgers of course.

The South African’s have been prone to making errors during the tournament and England will need to take advantage of them all if they are to have a chance.  The good thing is that practically everybody I’ve spoken to is going to be watching it - it’s great that the country has something to cheer about especially as it looks as though we might not qualify for Euro 2008 in our “National Sport”.

So unlikely as it might have appeared at the start of the F1 and Rugby seasons, by Sunday we could be World Champions in both sports, and the country could be suffering from an almighty hangover - especially in those more affluent middle class areas of course!  Then again, we might not have won anything, although no doubt the hangovers will still be there…

Another week passed so quickly, and a reprimand received for not commenting on England’s surprising victory last weekend.

What is it about England teams in any sport? The more expectation, praise and hope that is heaped upon them then worse they perform. Write them off and suddenly they become world beaters.  A kind of reverse psychology I guess - perhaps we should try it with the England football squad before the European Championships finals (assuming we make it of course - there you go started doing it already).

The same can almost be said with the England cricket team. Nobody gave them much of a chance in their current ODI series, having not won on the sub-continent for over 20 years they have stormed to a 3-1 lead with only one game remaining.  I say say the same can “almost” be said, because nobody gave them any chance in the Cricket World Cup and they sadly proved everybody right.

Anyway back to the rugby.  I watched the first 20 minutes only as I had to rush off for thrashing on the hockey pitch, but left them losing comfortably 8-3.  When we came off such was my expectation that I didn’t even ask how we got on.  It was only when I staggered into the bar to find that we had somehow managed to turn over the crims from down under to set up a semi-final against the All Blacks.

My thoughts turned to the Kiwi’s I know and inviting around to watch them grind England into the dust.  Saturday night was a blur of beer and curry so I missed the result and Sunday though saw me dragged back to the hockey club to umpire a ladies match, and not pay too much attention the result of New Zealand France.  Then I saw the post match discussion of Fiji South Africa and it became clear that SA were the only Southern Hemisphere team left.  I thought it was just the hangover kicking in for a while but it became clear that we were in fact playing France in the Semi and not the All Blacks.  I guess the weight of a nations hopes is too much even for them to carry!

I now have only 2 concerns. The first is that England are now fancied to win it and everybody is talking about us being the first nation to retain the Rugby World Cup. The second is that the only French person I know living close by is 9 months pregnant and therefore not the best person to watch the match, with in case a sudden trip to the local maternity unit is called for 10 minutes from time.

Another long but enjoyable week which has seen me on the side of a hill in Swaledale and out to the East coast to visit Whitby and Scarborough.  So no time for the important things like blogging.  But the weekend is nearly here and a window of opportnity is upon me.

Firstly I had no time even to gloat over the thrashing that Pompey handed out to Reading last weekend - 7 goals and a hattrick for Benjani.  Mind you with Calamity back to his “best form” we needed to score 7 to have a chance.  At least we are back in the top 6 - long may it last.

Then on Monday was the come back of the season so far with Spurs rescuing a point and I suspect their managers career with 3 late goals to earn a point at home  against the Villa.

Next there was the midweek Champions League - congratulations to all British teams with the exception on Liverpool who managed to lose at home against a French team for the first time in their history. 

But what about the antics at Celtic.  Having received a slight tap from an over excited supporter, Milan’s Brazilian keeper Dida decided to give chase.  That is to give chase for a a few yards until he threw himself to the ground.  Either out of breath or possibly cynically thinking that if he went down injured then the referee might abandon the game and get Milan out of jail?  Surely not.  Whatever his reasons, it was embarrassing to watch, expecially as having thrown himself down in such dramatic fashion he then had himself stretchered off. 

The fan has rightly been banned for life - lets hope that Dida receives a similar penalty and an Equity card in time for the Christmas panto season.  A wise man recently said that the Premiership footballers would not last 10 minutes in a  rugby league match.  Dida wouldn’t last 10 seconds, although it would be fun to watch!

Finally a word about the boy Hamilton.  In what must be one of the most controversial F1 World Championships on record he has survived another scare and escaped a points deduction after some erratic driving at the weekend.  Surprisingly his team “mate” failed to leap to his defence and is still trying to convince people that the young Brit has been favoured by McCLaren.  It must really suck when you realise that somebody is better than you and you don’t have the backbone to fight back.  Let’s hope that Lewis wraps it all up this weekend.

Oh and one more thing - England actually won a ODI yesterday apparently by 65 runs.  Wonders will never cease!