By Jason Moore
MUCH has been said and written about Jonny Wilkinson's fantastic drop goal which gave England a deserved World Cup victory on Saturday. But this was just one of the highlights for me. One thing which has marked the World Cup is the sense of sportsmanship and excellent manners by all the players involved. England not only won, they won well and with great dignity. At the end of the final the first thing all the players did was shake the hand of their opposite number. Does what the players do on the pitch affect the behaviour of the fans? I think so. No booing in the national anthems, not a single incident involving the supporters. In the case of England the team may have been excellent ambassadors for their country but so were the fans. England were a pleasure to watch. It would be nice if the under-achieving England football team could take note. One thing which was proved in Australia is that England can win at the highest level. I was not born the last time England won a World Cup so the victory on Saturday was even more sweet. I just hope that the overpaid and under-achieving soccer team can come to the conclusion that they must put on a good show in Portugal next year because England expects it. There is already talk of rugby replacing soccer as the national game. This will never happen but it is a warning. Soccer will always reign supreme in England but I am sure that rugby will start gaining in popularity. Overall a fantastic World Cup and congratulations to Clive Woodward. Perhaps it might be an idea if the England soccer team went down to the Royal Marines training base and were put through their paces like Woodward did with his winning team. And a warning to David Beckham, England expects and sixth place is no longer good enough if you want to remain on pole position.
Absolutely fantastic