that purple kit – a snip at £89.99.
Or the performance of the England rugby side that were wearing it against Argentina on Saturday.
Would they have been booed off Twickenham, as they were at the end of the 80 minutes after winning, if they had played some half decent rugby, run with the ball put on a show and lost? Doubtful.
Under Brian Ashton they were given too much freedom and it didn’t work because the modern professional era England player cannot think for himself. They need guidance, told how to approach every situation, told how to react, it’s a sad state of affairs. It’s even worse when you consider that after being together for three weeks, having played one game together last weekend, when they came up against an Argentinian side that had just got together with a number of amateurs in their ranks that England were still desperately looking around for that guidance from their coaches on what to do during the game.
It’s no coincidence that they looked better after the half time break.
As with the football team later that evening so few came out of the game with any credit, what with Jonny having a dog of a game Mark Cueto and especially Lewis Moody looked the part. And it brought about an interesting thought about the latter.
Should Mad Dog be the captain? He is crazy, he has a history of giving away stupid penalties but when watching the game he was always there and on a number of occasions he was there barking out orders, instructing those around him. Whereas the actual captain was nowhere, only seen when he was unfortunately on the end of a couple of decent passes from Wilkinson, when you were wishing for a back to be there.
Then you watch the respective post match interviews and your brow furrows in confusion as you can’t quite believe what you are hearing. While Borthwick stumbles through telling us how good England were and the positives they’ll take out of the game. Mad Dog articulately and eruditely conveys his disappointment in England’s performance in a more honest assessment than Borthwick can ever seem to manage.
Martin Johnson needs help, but he also has to help himself, just because he was a winning captain who played in the second row doesn’t mean it will work every time. Sticking with Borthwick isn’t going to work, a new captain won’t bring about an immediate change but it will be a start, a start that’s required if Johnno wants to hang onto the job.
One thing that struck me after watching the Ireland v Australia rugby union game and then the highlights of England v Australia rugby league match yesterday on the Beeb is that while the union commentators talk to the viewer naturally as if they were having a conversation with you in your front room their league counterparts are always shouting to the point of screaming. Eddie Waring, Ray French the fella yesterday, all shouters.
And it’s not like they could use the excuse of the crowd at the weekend, while the union games at Croke Park, Twickenham and amazingly the San Siro, Milan were played out in front of near sellout 70,000 plus crowds the Elland Road crowd was 10,000 short of the 40,000 capacity in league’s heartland for a big international final.
But then maybe Brian Moore wishes he’d said a certain comment even quieter.