England Forgets

‘BAD luck those of you who thought the Jonny Wilkinson’s bandwagon would keep on rolling.

Who he?

Not even a week after the rugby World Cup was won the Telegraph’s lead sports page has but one thing on its mind: football.

We learn that Chelsea have done enough to make it through to the last 16 of the Champions’ League. We hear that Claudio Ranieri, the Blues’ likeable if barely understandable manager, now plans to win his team’s qualifying group.

And we hear that Leeds United are in even deeper trouble than Captain Nemo is a giant squid’s tentacles. Continued failure to secure a deal with creditors could well see the Yorkshire club fall into the hands of administrators.

The Sun, which loves a good rugby story as much as the next lager-swilling city dweller, tells us that Manchester United, like Chelsea, are in the knock-out stages of the Champions’ League and that Arsenal’s Thierry Henry is on course to be named World Footballer of The year.

And even before readers of the Times’ rugby newssheet can learn about Jason Robinson’s commitment to Christianity, we are invited to pick over the report of Heart of Midlothian’s Uefa Cup mach against Bordeaux tonight.

Only then do we hear of Robinson, and how the paper’s Giles Smith eyed the crowd assembled at Heathrow Airport to greet England’s returning heroes and worried about how any of the lads would find their taxi.

Thank goodness then for the Independent, which does have a rugby story on its lead sports page.

And the news is that for the Newcastle game against Basle tonight the skies will be “partly cloudy” with a temperature of around five degrees Centigrade.

Oh, silly us, that’s not Jonny Wilkinson’s Newcastle, but that of Bobby Robson and Alan Shearer. It’s an easy enough mistake to make.’

Posted: 27th, November 2003 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink