I hate that feeling. You find it with some great sporting encounter before you, one that offers all the joys and miseries of partisanship and patriotism — and you find yourself saying things like, well, I just hope it’s a contest. I hope our boys can make a game of it. So long as it’s close — well, I really don’t mind about the result.
This is a sentiment that never survives the first treacherous uprising of hope. And today, three England teams go into three matches in three sports, and in all of them, in different levels and in different ways, it is legitimate to hope at least for some kind of performance.
The England football team always expect to lose to Brazil. They would have beaten them in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 2002 if they hadn’t expected to lose. They play Brazil in a friendly in Doha, a fixture that is all about pride and, er, money, in a match in which the result matters comparatively little, but a good, intelligent and cogent performance matters very much.
In truth, the match is likely to be something of a call to order. England beat Croatia and were instantly regarded as world-beaters. Brazil and Kak? may be a little more testing. We need England to look like a grown-up, fully baked team who believe that they have a right to joust with Brazil. A performance without deference.
... casting aside self-doubt . . .
In one sense, all that matters for the rugby union boys as they play another South American opponent, Argentina, is a result. Certainly, after a woeful performance against Australia last weekend, it is clear that defeat would be a disaster for them.
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But England need to deliver a performance as well as a victory. Last Saturday’s attacking display, one in which the ball seemed perpetually stuck in molasses, made us all wonder if the team were ever going to improve: stuck like Groundhog Day in a perpetual state of rebuilding and reorganising and “judge me the day after tomorrow” management.
If there is hope, it is in the fitness and availability of Jonny Wilkinson. If there is despair, it is in the way that England failed to allow him to dictate the game last weekend. Giving him the ball would be a great step forward. Last Saturday’s team looked fundamentally incoherent. Argentina are good, but they are not Australia or New Zealand. England need to look like a proper team, not like one about to improve, but like one that has actually done so. A performance without self-doubt.
. . . and celebrating impudent youth
England beat the world champions last weekend. Now the Gillette Four Nations rugby league tournament reaches its final today and England, having beaten New Zealand, face Australia for the title. They do so in the accustomed position of underdogs.
Australia have beaten England well in this competition and go into this evening’s match as clear favourites. There is a sense in which a powerful performance from England would be enough, but last week’s match against the Kiwis suggested that something more is at least a possibility.
England’s attack was splendidly put together by Kyle Eastmond and Sam Tomkins, the half backs, who were involved in all three of England’s tries. They were fast, fearless and unpredictable. This is a young team right through, and they might even get it right against Australia.
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England have been a genuinely improving team throughout this brief and well-made competition; one more step on and they really could be something special. The traditional fear of Australia is England’s greatest opponent. Their greatest hope lies in the optimism and cheek of youth. A performance of impudence.