United’s response to drubbing intrigues

One of the inexorable laws of footballing life is that every team, no matter how good, get a drubbing at some time. It’s the nature of the game. Every so often, even a good team will have a day when their opponents are better, when everything goes against them, when it really is just one of those days.

It happened to Germany in Munich in 2001, when they were beaten 5-1 by England. Then what happened? Germany were runners-up in the World Cup while England went out in the quarter-finals.

To put it another way, drubbings happen. It’s what you do after them that matters. Manchester United lost 4-1 at home to Liverpool last weekend in a wonderful game of football. But what matters is not what happened last Saturday but what happens this afternoon, when United take on Fulham at Craven Cottage. The nature of the performance will tell us all kinds of things about their chances of pulling off their “impossible” quintuple.

In the narrower terms of the league, we have to wonder how their rivals deal with United’s setback. Will they ram home the advantage, or will they feel a touch of bum-squeakiness? United are seeking to become themselves again; are Fulham quite the team we would have chosen for this occasion?

Simple display of competence will suffice

Last week in this space I made an ironical remark about the likelihood of the England rugby union team giving the French a lesson in running rugby, a theme I continued in banter with my colleagues at Twickenham. “I thought you were joking,” they said afterwards, joking.

It was a quite extraordinary detonation of brilliance and confidence, and it struck us out of a clear sky. It came from a team that had given us nothing but misery. Really, the five-try rout of France was one of the most surprising things I have seen in sport. Never mind how bad the French were, the point is that England had been making a habit of playing a great deal worse. Now, in a blinding swoop, they went from hopelessness to brilliance. The question now is how long the brilliance can last.

England play their final match of the RBS Six Nations Championship against Scotland at Twickenham this afternoon and could finish second. I don’t expect half a dozen tries — lightning won’t strike twice — but a performance of confidence and competence would end the tournament in a very satisfactory manner.

Feminine touch is a delight to behold

An England team in the World Cup final. An England cricket team going great guns in the one-day game. Something worth celebrating; something worth watching, too, as Charlotte Edwards leads the England women’s cricket team in a charge for glory. England are going for a third World Cup after the football and rugby union triumphs — pretty fair going.

But let’s not just use this convincing display of excellence as a stick for beating the other England one-day team, the one with all the shaving tackle and the money. We should make a mental adjustment and appreciate the women’s game for its own sake.

It’s the batting that is most intriguing. We have become used to big men swinging heavy bats through the line and across the line and seeing mis-hits go for six. In the women’s game, timing and placement are the big things. They play a lot of deflection shots, they use the power of the ball. There is a sense of throwback, of a time when cricket was played in a different way at a different pace.

I make no value judgments; the women’s game is fascinating and rewarding, at least once you have got used to the coloratura-soprano appeals. And victory always has its own appeal.