We go looking for success, we find ourselves enthralled by failure. In sport, it’s the next best thing. You can’t find someone who has conquered the world every day of your sporting life, but you can usually find someone who has tried and failed. Falling short has its own fascinations. It comes with a hope that things might improve, along with an acceptance that, in all probability, things will go the other way.

Which brings us to one-day cricket and to England’s failure to improve. Test match victories come along often enough to keep us interested. One-day success, in any sustained sense — or any significant trophy sense — eludes Our Boys. Perhaps it’s a bit like the Eurovision Song Contest: we’d be more likely to win if we all took it seriously.

England play South Africa tomorrow in the second one-day international. It is an aspect of the tour that South Africa seem determined to inject a bit of nastiness. So a bit of success in this unlikely arena would be a cheering thing — especially if it involved Adil Rashid, England’s tyro leg spinner and the latest target for South African sniping. Clean bowling Graeme Smith and hitting the winning run, for example.

‘Big four’ rivals fight it out with handbags
People have complained about the “big four” in the Premier League for too many seasons, but at last Liverpool have decided that they are the ones who will break that monopoly. They have done so by losing their place among the elite and slithering down to seventh place. It was Manchester City’s mission, as football’s latest member of the nouveau riche, to do the breaking themselves. Instead, they have taken the top four by zephyr. Their inconsistency is a result of their shallow roots. It emphasises the importance of a tradition of winning — a culture of playing the part of flat-track bully with the right kind of efficiency.

City and Liverpool see themselves as rightful members of the top clubs, one by means of history, the other by means of cash. And so far this season, both methods have fallen short. They play each other today and the fixture looks like a bit of a ladies excuse-me: a celebration of the “after you; no, no, after you” tendency in top-flight football. It is a match that both sides badly need to win. Alas, that’s not something that tends to happen.

England heroes to emerge in a lost cause
The England rugby union team are set for the third and last of the autumn internationals and have a hot date with New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon. So far, England have given us a poor defeat by Australia and a worse victory over Argentina.

I’m inclined to predict a triumph this time. No, no, of course I don’t think they’ll win. But I do think they’ll give a rather splendid and heartening performance of futile heroism. We can expect all kinds of stirring efforts in a lost cause; anyone who has watched the Scotland football team at the World Cup finals will know the sort of thing that’s expected.

England go into this match with no expectations. Their highest hope is respectability. It’s possible that the frustrations, not to mention the futility, will strike some kind of spark. At any rate, enough to keep the rugby types from howling too loudly for a change of manager.

Last week’s epic performance by Lewis Moody might well set the tone for today. All of which will set us up very nicely for the RBS Six Nations Championship in the new year — when we can look forward to being enthralled by failure once again.