"leaving only the footballers, who haven't even resembled a contemporary football team..."

England have performed just fine since the year you mentioned, England has never dominated international football, they have never produced a team that was truly memorable around the world. They have always been somewhere around the 10th best team in the world and since 1998 they managed to reach the top 8 of the World Cup twice. There was s**tloads of effort on display in the last two major tournaments England have played in but sadly they were just not good enough technically to advance.

Football is by far the most competitive sport on the planet, it is unfair to compare the England football team to the Rugby or Cricket teams. The competition is far greater, far more diverse and of far greater athletic ability. It poses a huge variety of styles, tactics and formations to deal with and it only takes one of those to get the better of you and you are out.

For all of Rugby's "brave" players, there's also thousands out there who use the pitch as an excuse to get away thuggery in the name of sport and then just claim "it is part of the game". The sport has had it's fair share of cheats and fakers too. They are obviously fewer in number because hardly anyone plays it in comparison to football.

Football brings out for more emotion, far more passion, far more unity, far more memorable moments and is of far more importance for the world than Rugby could ever dream of being.

Posted By: Brandonio, Feb 7, 02:11:24