Our sports press in Britain seems at the moment to be keen to come to the conclusion that that the England rugby team have disappointed in the World Cup as a result of off pitch antics. It is true England have had 'fun' in their time in New Zealand; they went bungee jumping, went out drinking and one jumped off a boat. WOW, STEADY ON LADS! But (and I am aware I am about to come to England's defence) so what? I admit that the comments made to the female hotel worker were unacceptable, but surely the rest of the stories about the English team are our press jumping on any finger out of place. As Martin Johnson said; "Rugby players like a drink, big surprise!"
I realise that these are the professionals and that you hardly expect them to act like a town club on tour in Dublin for a fortnight when they all get lashed every night and the mantra on every players lips is "what goes on tour stays on tour", but at least let the players enjoy themselves. If we look back to England football's dreadful display at The World Cup 2010 in South Africa rumours were abound that they were all very bored sitting in their hotel like monks, surely a little socialising and some days and nights out can't hurt.
The papers seem to also have been keen to point out that right next door, in comparison to England's underachievers, sit the Welsh overachievers, who have all become teetotal for the World Cup, and have slinked under the radar. But the fact remains that whatever they say the British press are more interested and will devote more column inches to England than to Wales, not all the Welsh footsteps are dogged by reporters looking for a juicy sweep.
What it comes down to at the end of the day is that England have not played well and their decisions were incorrect. Wales have played well, and if the don't beat France on Saturday will certainly give them a run around, but more about that later. If England had won the World Cup everyone would have forgotten the bungee jump, as it is they haven't and they haven't.
No comments:
Post a Comment