You Can't Make Monkeys Out Of Us You Know

Well how's about that then, as Jimmy Saville might have said. We, England, win at Cricket, Rugby Union and Football on the same afternoon, all in important International matches. Okay, so beating the U.S.A and Israel might be something you only usually brag about if you're a Palestinian but two wins are well, two wins.

The cricket win at Lords was the most impressive, particularly after the summer we've had lurching from good to bad to Jonathan Lewis haircut. The way Ian Bell, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood and Monty have played this summer has made you forget about last winter and enjoy the success. Of course there have been the downsides, Freddie's injury, KP's habit of getting himself of his partners out at crucial times but the seven match series against India was exciting cricket, not least because in the spirit of sub-continent bookmakers, the Indian team thought it was a spread betting contest and gave us a 3-1 lead at one point.

On the football front if we hadn't beaten Israel at home we should not only have sacked Mr McLaren but everybody associated with him and his team, crap results call for extreme measures. As it is they all live again until Wednesday and the game against Russia is important not just because we need a win but also because it pits England's current manager against Gus Hiddink, the person most of the English press wanted to succeed Sven. Could be an interesting night as the Russians, as Terry from the Likely Lads would say, aren't particularly good travellers.

The Rugby Union encounter with the USA was low down on my priorities I have to say. Having watched most of the two earlier games in the day involving New Zealand and Australia I think I had o'd on tries and the ritual slaughtering of the minnows by the time England kicked off. I did enjoy the comment by Jon Champion on ITV during the All Blacks game though, realising that the games in Lens and Wembley overlapped he said, "For those of you who may have alternate schedules planned for late this afternoon, the England v USA match will be replayed at 10:45 tonight." So much better than the days when ITV and BBC refused to acknowledge the other existed. I liked the crowd reaction in the Australis v Japan match cheering the Japanese players every time they evaded a tackle or made more than two passes in any phase, it's good to see that condescension towards weaker sporting nations exists outside of football.