Published by Steve 29 October, 2007 - 11:14
Cheer up England
I like motorsport and rugby.
With this in mind, on Friday 19th October 2007, with the prospect of the coming weekend's sporting events, I was as excited as a five year old boy having just been told on Christmas Eve that his parents had recently won the lottery and decided to spend the whole lot on a fully working Millennium Falcon; which was being delivered the next day.
The weekend didn't go to plan. England battled valiantly against a strong and determined South African XV, but it wasn't to be. Lewis Hamilton got a bad start in Brazil and was hindered by a ‘box full of neutrals that put paid to his campaign to become the first rookie in the history of the sport to become World Champion .
I was down. And I had a headache.
But hang on just a cotton pickin' minute. If I was told in January of this year that the England rugby squad would have the opportunity to defend their world title against South Africa in the World Cup Final and that Lewis Hamilton would finish second in the Formula 1 Drivers Championship, beating his team mate Fernando Alonso (and his eyebrows), I would have taken it and said thank you very much, I'm off to the pub to celebrate.
This is the thing. We beat France and Australia at rugby and Lewis found his way onto the podium twelve times. Our expectations were raised beyond all belief. Let's not lose sight of what was achieved and what will be achieved in the future.
It's all about perceptions you see. On the face of it, we lost - but did we? Wilkinson and Co and a very young Lewis won more than anyone would have predicted in 2007. It's not spin, it's fact. Wake up England and hold your heads up high.
