14 - 9

Anyone who knows me will agree that I am not a fan of sport but when England beat France second time round in a semi final yesterday "I was there" as Max Boyce used to say. Not literally you understand, I wouldn't go that far but metaphorically I was behind the boys.

Wasn't it good to see England come back from 8 - 9 down in the last ten minutes with the help of the nations hero Johnny Wilkinson? Didn't it make you proud to be English? For a brief time we could forget Gordon Brown, the McCanns, the Diana inquest and rejoice.

Of course I couldn't watch the game until last night on Canal+1 so I deliberately didn't check the score online when the match had finished. It was so much sweeter though because once the program had finished, I could go to bed a happy man knowing that the tradition, that started at Agincourt, of beating the French on their own territory had been upheld.

PS I can hear fireworks outside - could it be that the locals are celebrating England's victory.
PPS I've just watched a video explaining that the first ball Johnny was given for his penalty kick was not one of the six match balls. Now how did that happen?