Another disappointing day!

As some of you know, I'm a rather passionate follower of Rugby Union especially English Rugby Union. Being an England follower since playing the game at school in the 1970's, there have been times of great excitement and awful disappointment. The high point was of course the 2003 World Cup, but there have been good times outside of that competition. 

At the moment it would be hard to describe English rugby as anything but floundering. Whilst the optimist would say that there are signs of hope, they often hide themselves behind a failure to take opportunities and incredible naivety when it comes to staying focused and doing the right thing at the right time. 

I sit amazed that highly professional players make the kind of mistakes we were not allowed to make at schoolboy level. Simple things like like not playing the man without the ball. Today, as I watched England lose another game they could have won, I was amazed to see people diving over rucks and slapping the ball out of the scrum-half's hands; seasoned professionals going into rucks and mauls from so far off-side you'd have thought they were playing for the opposition, just wearing the wrong shirt.

One day, I sincerely hope, England will again dominate the rugby world, but at the moment I just have to sigh and grin and bear it. At least it was Ireland this week, and for some reason I don't mind that quite as much as I might. As it is, 2009 is going to be another year of damage limitation. with only two matches left, it's a sad reality that they could lose both of them, and that would be a poor season by any measure.