England’s rugby team are embarrassingly sore losers

Sports events come and go, but good manners, as William of Wykeham might have put it, last for ever. Or the lack of them. Which is why the surly, petulant behaviour of most of England’s rugby players after losing the World Cup final was so disgraceful. Refusing to wear the medals presented to them (by Sir Bill Beaumont, for heaven’s sake, a man who knows a bit about losing as well as winning), or hastily discarding them, standing around scowling, and then failing to bow in unison to the Japanese people who had created such a marvellous tournament.

It was all pretty shameful. The rugby fraternity loftily dismisses this as being because the team care too much and felt they had let down the nation. And anyway, we’re not elite athletes so we, the public, don’t understand. Really? What tosh. South Africa’s inspirational captain Siya Kolisi grew up in a township, uncertain of where his next meal was coming from.