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. That’s worth caring about too.

Never underestimate the capacity of sportspeople to shoot themselves in the foot just as they’re being lavished with praise. England’s performance after the match was unsporting and embarrassing, and, as a games master might have told a team of ill-tempered ten-year-olds, ‘Very disappointing, boys’. And don’t say it’s part of that ghastly sense that ‘We’re winners, we are: we don’t do losing’. Well, look at the score, guys.

Contrast it with the All Blacks’ graceful behaviour after losing that memorable semi-final to England. And New Zealand had actually lost the World Cup, not simply failed to win it. We have a lot to learn.

It was equally contemptuous when José Mourinho once took off his Premier League winner’s medal and threw it into the crowd at Stamford Bridge.