He is good-looking, clean-living, great at kicking a football and better at making money from his sport than any other player. It’s rugby’s Jonny Wilkinson we are talking about here, not football’s David Beckham. Wilkinson is the man feared most by Australia, the hosts of the fifth Rugby World Cup and its defending champions.

Former South African cricket captain Kepler Wessels lashed out at the United Cricket Board on Wednesday, claiming the board had a vendetta against him after they demanded his immediate suspension. However, he welcomed his suspension pending an investigation into alleged racist remarks he had uttered.

England will lay a whole graveyard full of ghosts to rest when they win the World Cup on Saturday. The country that gave organised team sport to the world during the 19th century had precious little to show for it in the 20th. But they have come a long way from the days where they were a bunch of gifted amateurs.

Ah, the turd place play-off. Excuse the Irish accent. In sport nobody wants to finish second. Third is bloody rubbish and fourth is out of the question. But there we were, watching the vanquished semifinalists, France and New Zealand, decide who were the bigger losers. The All Blacks finished on top of the dung heap.