Charlie_Mullan
Contributor

Offline, last online: Dec 18 2008, 14:33 PM

What a weekend of sport!
The Formula One season boiling down to the final corner, a seven-goal thriller at Old Trafford and England's embarrassments in Twenty/20 and rugby league.

Anyone who thought England had a realistic chance of bringing the Rugby League World Cup back to these shores will be realising there will only be one winner this year.

We all knew there was a gulf in class between the NRL and Super League but the way England capitulated in Melbourne was simply pathetic.

There's no other way to sum it up and I'm sure Shaun Briscoe and Peter Fox are relieved not to be associated with a very poor performance.

On the subject of the World Cup, the world media have just dismissed PNG, who shouldn't have been dumped in with the big 3, have seemingly nothing to play for in their final group game. Or do they?

England play New Zealand next week while PNG have to beat Australia in their final game to stand any chance of progressing.

If, and I know it's a massive if, if PNG beat Australia, PNG would have the same number of points as the loser of England v New Zealand.
The conspiracy theorists reading this might suggest Australia let PNG beat them by the required points to eliminate their dear friends - the Pommies. Of course, Australia are too professional for that and will no doubt record a routine win over PNG and keep England in the competition. And why wouldn't they want England, who have been outscored 52-0 in the second halves of their last 2 games.

England claim they are closing the gap between themselves and the NRL. That is not the case even though they have dominated recent World Club Challenges. The standard of Super League may be getting better, but so is the NRL standard and therefore, the Australian game will always be better than here in England. England missed 45 tackles, and you can't afford that many against Australia.

People accuse rugby league as a Mickey Mouse sport and they have a point when you consider the referee was Australian and the video referee was an Australian born ref based in England. Did anyone else notice the touch judge smile when Greg Inglis scored to make it 16-4 to Australia?

Congratulations to Hull City for running mighty Man United close at Old Trafford on Saturday. At 4-1 down, nobody gave the Tigers a prayer and instead of taking a leaf out of England's rugby league team's book, City dug deep to score two late goals.

The late action wasn't confined to Old Trafford as Lewis Hamilton secured a dramatic World Championship. When Felipe Massa took the chequered flag, with Hamilton sixth, he thought correctly he had won the title. But as Glock's car ran to a halt, Hamilton moved to the fifth place he needed to take the title.

As for the Stanford All Stars match, what a damp squid that turned out to be. So the Stanford All Stars are $20m richer. If they can find another million dollars, they could buy Saddam Hussein's yacht, which is on sale for £17m.
It's fitted with everything from a helicopter pad, 2 swimming pools a mini submarine and what every luxury yacht should have - a surface to air missile launcher.


 

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