What has happened to the England Rugby Team? I just can't understand why we've become so depressingly awful.Why am I being so negative and not doing as any faithful fan would, such as espousing the virtues of "taking part, not winning"?
Well, on Friday evening I settled down with a few cold beers on hand to watch England v South Africa. I knew this would be a tough match, and it was being touted as England's biggest test match since last World Cup's final against the Wallabies.
Beset with injuries, no strength in depth, no battle-ready number 10, and no real peripheral vision going on, I watched as time and again the Springboks ran ring after ring after ring around us. I actually found myself cheering Bryan Habana as he came back onto the pitch to replace his blood substitution.
Such was my disappointment that I actually turned over at half-time to watch some vacuous BBC comedy, as my constant grimacing was giving me face ache.
But the worst is yet to come. If - and it's a big if - we get second place in our Pool, then we get the almighty task of meeting Australia in the quarter finals. Safe to say that our velocitous exit will be precipitated by Australia's bloodthirsty need for revenge.
But we shouldn't all look on this gloomily - even though Australia will beat us, and it's not a case of if but of by how many points - we can all safely look back on November '03 and know that we beat them when it mattered most, on their turf, in front of their home crowd. Despite all of their back-stabbing, smear campaigns, verbal and xenophobic attacks on England that tournament, we still lifted the Webb-Ellis trophy.
We all get our "15 minutes of fame". Our time's now up.
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