I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

WOW!

For a man who likes his sport, today has been a bit special.

I forewent my morning jog today to settle down with my cereal to watch The Rugby World Cup Final and it certainly did not disappoint. I have been following the tournament since it kicked off what seems like months ago, have watched all the big matches, seen Scotland robbed by Argentina and  fall just short against England, watched a very poor England lose to France (Allez les Bleus!), failed to understand how Australia managed to win against South Africa and then enjoyed the All Blacks demolition of The Aussies in the semis, but today was just something else.

In a titanic struggle the French gave absolutely everything but the All Blacks survived and ended 24 years of pain. They were without doubt the outstanding team of the tournament and dealt admirably with the weighty expectations of such a Rugby obsessed nation. They also dealt with not only the loss of possibly the best player in the world in Dan Carter, but by the end of the final were fielding their fourth choice fly half Stephen Donald, who just for good measure kicked what proved to be the winning penalty. They were led by the incomparable Richie McCaw, the epitome of a living legend. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key is quoted as having said that he had a dream that Richie McCaw would lift the World Cup and then stand as leader of the opposition to him in the forthcoming elections. I think that would have been a landslide victory

I could not help but feel some sympathy for the French. I thought they were immense. Although Dusautoir won Man of the Match, I thought Trinh-Duc was outstanding and had a particularly amazing run only stopped by a brilliant tap tackle from Weepu. They can return home with their tetes held high

So now the big three of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa have all won the tournament twice each with another country having won it once.

Today's final was up there with the best of them for pure passion and excitement and perhaps only equalled by the 1995 final and the involvement of Mr Mandela and all that the victory for South Africa encompassed

I look forward to 2015 in England. Hopefully Young Ben and I will see Scotland qualify for the knockout stages down the road.

Then this afternoon I watched two very strange football matches.

Manchester City destroyed Manchester United 6-1, running riot in the second half after the red card for Jonny Evans. I fully accept that Sir Alex knows a good deal more about football than I do, but starting with Evans. Really? In the end the naivety shown by United chasing the game was reminiscent of that displayed by Arsenal earlier in the season at Old Trafford. Looks like the noisy neighbours will not be moving anytime soon. Game on me thinks!

Then there was the QPR v Chelsea game. Let me state from the outset that I am not a lover of Chelsea. I used to admire them back in the days of Osgood and Charlie Cooke but the but the on and off field antics of the likes of Mr Terry and Mr Cole do nothing for me these days.

That having been said, in the second half today playing with 9 men they totally outplayed QPR who were hanging on like grim death at the end. I also felt the penalty which produced the only goal was very soft and the first red card fairly harsh although Drogba could have no complaints and is a mere shadow now of the player who has terrorised defences in the Premier League in recent seasons. Anyway QPR have their own 'enfant terrible' in Joey Barton and speaking as a Sunderland fan he is obviously not one of my favourite footballers (and I use the term footballer here in the broadest of senses)

Both games provided excellent entertainment for the fairly neutral viewer

As a chap who used to play for Chelsea once said 'It's a funny old game'