Rugby’s big day!

I am beyond excited at the prospect of tonight’s rugby. It will be a defining game, one which may determine the rest of the tournament. I’ll be glued to my seat, glass in hand, quietly confident that my beloved team will win and go on to win in the final. But I’ll tell you what: whenever St Helens play Wigan, current form goes out of the window!

Yes, I know really that there is another game going on in a different code where England line up in the union version of the game in the small matter of the world cup. I quite enjoy union too, these days, so I’ll be recording the England v Fiji game on ITV to watch later, trying desperately to avoid the result.

Whilst the rugby union world cup is not a world cup like the football world cup, I am the first to recognise it is more of a world cup than the league version. Don’t get me wrong: I loved the league world cup a couple of years ago, attending a good few games around the country, but I am not blind to the fact that an awful lot of the players making up a good number of teams were actually Australian, sometimes with threadbare qualifications for the countries for which they played. “Got an Italian name? Then come and play for Italy! Ever heard of the Cook Islands, Bruce? You’re not gonna make the Aussie footy team, so here’s a chance of playing in an international tournament!”

Union is not immune from allowing players to play for countries with tenuous connections. In recent years, England have selected South Africans Pacific Islanders, Wales have a number of Englishmen in their squad, the Scots have long selected Englishmen, as well as Australians. And don’t start with with the All Blacks! Qualification rules for union are not as pliable as for league but there’s not much in it.

That I shall be preferring St Helens against Wigan in the Super League is simply a matter of choice and priorities. I’ve had to think long and hard about it, but Wigan, my favourite team, as befits someone who have never been there and has no familial connections with the area, need to win the League Leaders Shield, which doesn’t mean they’ve won Super League itself – that, like in union, is determined by a system of play offs – but it’s my sporting priority tonight. It might be a trickier decision of the union boys were lining up against Wales or Australia in their “group of death” but, frankly, the clash against Fiji doesn’t quite float my boat.

But I am interested in the union world cup. I will watch a lot of it. Whilst there remain some elements of snobbery about the sport, which is barely played in most state schools, and it maintains an erroneous image in some areas of being the sport of the upper classes, the truth is very different. The England team is overwhelming comprised of men who went to state schools, no one in their right mind would call the occupants of the shed at Gloucester, or indeed the Bristol fans at Ashton Gate, from the upper classes.

There are still some on both sides who disparage the other side, as if their code is superior. I would say it’s more about what you prefer and there is room for both.

I watched England defeat Australia in the final of 2003. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see England win again this year, preferably with league convert Sam Burgess scoring the winning try! Actually, I wouldn’t care England won with one of those union penalties, impenetrably awarded by the main man of the pitch; the referee. A straightforward win will do.

In the meantime, come on you Warriors!