England is going to be very, very quiet this morning as we all recover from last night’s mammoth celebration. Winning a place in the World Cup Finals of anything is something we don’t do very often these days. In fact as a nation, we’ve lost the knack of winning in general. Now that sports days in schools are strictly non-competitive and there’s a gift in every layer of Pass the Parcel we’ve pretty much had it drilled into us that “It’s not the winning, it’s the taking part that counts”. Try telling that to one of the losing French side and see where it gets you. But wasn’t it hugely exciting? Wasn’t Josh Lewsey’s try an act of sheer audacity, and didn’t Johnny Wilkinson manage to pull it out of the bag when he had to? And weren’t you on the edge of your seat at the end? So bring on the final. Apparently we are still only rated seventh in the World Rugby Rankings http://wrr.live555.com/ despite last night’s triumph. Yes, seventh. That’s lower than France (ranked third) and Australia (fourth), both of whom we've now beaten (in case you needed reminding). You want to know where South Africa and Argentina rank, don’t you? Well, South Africa is currently sixth – only one rank ahead of us despite that 36-0 trouncing the other week. For that alone, we definitely don’t want to meet them again in the final. But Argentina is ranked second in the world, so we don’t want to play them either. How about a world cup for every team - just for taking part?
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