Pop Buzz UK

Oh dear, what a week that was for English sport. First of all we had the England football team putting in a shocking display and losing to a controversial penalty against Russia. A result which may lead to us not reaching the Euro 2008 finals, and also manager Steve McClaren being fired from his job. You can read the full post about that here.

Then on Saturday, England played South Africa in the Rugby World Cup final in Paris, and lost 15-6. Okay, we weren’t expected to reach the latter stages of the competition in the first place but once we’d reached the final there was a massive amount of expectation on the team. In the end it came to nothing as South Africa just managed to pip us at the post, quite literally.

It had started so well, and looked like carrying on the same vein until England had a sure try unjustly disallowed. It looked perfectly good to me as Cueto sailed in and stuck the ball over the line.

The television match official watched replay after replay before deciding that his foot had narrowly gone in to touch before the ball was down.

I’ve since watched the replay numerous times myself and still think it was too close to call a definite out. Surely we should have had the benefit of the doubt given?

The Springboks took over from then on, and in the end easily beat our boys.

And then yesterday was the biggie, Formula 1 rookie Lewis Hamilton had the perfect chance to take the world championship in his debut season. It started badly, when he tried to recklessly overtake his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso on the first lap only to run off the track, an error which put him from 2nd on the grid back to fifteenth place.

From then on it was an uphill struggle with Hamilton trying to desperately claw his way back to the top 5 spot which could have seen him win the championship by the narrowest points margin.

In the end, Ferrari driver Kimi Raikonnen won the title, his first ever. He may well have deserved it based purely on his ability as a driver, but he is also one of the least exciting drivers in the sport I have ever seen.

Whereas Lewis Hamilton seems to want to race, to overtake and excite the crowd, Finn Raikkonen just seems purely intent on boring his way to the front of the race.

He’s also got the personality of a newt, and it’s almost a chore to watch him speak in the after race interviews with his distinct lack of personality and any change of tone in his voice.

Am I bitter? Yes, I am, Hamilton deserved victory after a fantastic first season. I just hope he doesn’t now do a Jenson Button and fail to live up to his firsts season billing as the next British world champion.

So there we have it, a crappy weekend of sporting misery for England. I’d like to sit here and say there’s always next year but I’m just too damn depressed right now.

England, UK, British, English, Britain, Steve McClaren, Ferrari, Grand Prix, Formula One, Lewis Hamilton, Cueto, Kimi Raikonnen, Russia, Euro 2008, Paris, World Cup, Springboks, Alonso