Even though our usual focus is e-commerce and shopping, with the excitement of the Rugby World Cup yesterday we can't avoid but putting some of our sporting thoughts down on paper...
Australia had come out looking to avenge the 2003 World Cup defeat on home-soil, but England had other ideas. Led by Andrew Sheridan and Jonny Wilkinson, the English side brought down the heavily favoured Wallabies with a smashing performance. The four penalty kicks made were enough for the English side, even without scoring a single try.
And if this wasn't enough of a surprise yesterday, the French side knocked out the cup-bound All Blacks,
with an outstanding second half. Who in their right mind would have expected an English-French semi-final? Betting on such an outcome Saturday morning would probably have been worth 100 to 1 odds, if not better. It seems that Australia and New Zealand can beat their respective opponents anytime except for in World Cup play. Or maybe it's just that England and France have the right attitude to step up and defeat their supposed betters when it counts.
The last four years for the English side have been mostly downhill, with 17 defeats at the hands of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France. There was also a slip in world rankings from first place to sixth. Add to this a shutout loss to South Africa and an appalling performance against the USA in the group stage last month, which made hopes for another title absolutely disappear.
But England have done it, with a combination of strong discipline, perseverance and Jonny's left boot. The following is a video of two of Jonny's scores yesterday, which gave him the lead in all-time World Cup points rankings too.
