You don't get gold for second place.

"Sometimes in sport things don't make sense and predictions are not right, and it is a very special day when the underdog rises up" - Phil Vickery

I've had that fuzzy feeling all night, ever since about 9:44pm when the England rugby team unceremoniously disposed of France's World Cup hopes. I love it when we beat the French - it's on a par with beating the Aussies.

What a way to do it, as well. After being outplayed and outclassed twice, just before the competition, by the French, it meant a lot to win it when it mattered - something the French never seem capable of doing. What was even more amazing was the emotion a win for the rugby can generate within the public - I was in a bar in Bristol when the final whistle went, and people were hugging each other, cheering, shouting - a friend of mine admitted to crying when it was all over. What a win, what a performance...I'll let her off though, it was her birthday.

What really struck me was the contrast between a win like that for the rugby team, and, for example, a win for their footballing counterparts. Football is a sport that over the last decade, has become downtrodden with foreign imports, greed, mediocrity and dishonesty. More poignantly, it seems fairly common knowledge that England would probably get beaten by Manchester United - even if United allowed England the likes of Rooney and Ferdinand. International sport should be the pinnacle of sporting achievement, the highest level - and yet, watching games like England versus Estonia, you get the feeling that it's all a bit Davis Cup - this isn't the big league, this isn't the summit of professional achievement. I think it's the same everywhere. Jose Mourinho, for all of his Portuguese pride, doesn't want the Portugal management job, and you know why? Because winning the Champions' League is more of a rush, and more of an achievement. And it's not like that in rugby.

Rugby is a far more honest game, even though to really succeed at it, you need a certain amount of 'street wise' - i.e. to cheat, but not get caught. The really great forwards are renowned not for being strong or quick, but for winning ball at the breakdown by any means necessary, by putting off your opposite number, laying down a marker. In terms of laying down a marker, there is none finer than our own Jonny Wilkinson. He has shown in this World Cup that there is much, much more to his game than the metronomic left foot that won us the Webb Ellis Trophy last time round - which is just as well, because he's been about as reliable as a Bristol bus in that regard - but his hit on Fabien Pelous last night (which effectively ended Pelous' career) was brave, and eventually gave England an advantage in the scrum, as it prompted the arrival of Chabal. Matt Stevens gave Chabal a similar treatment, and two of the French lynchpins were muted. Brutal, but effective. All this week, Phil Vickery, a local hero of mine (a Gloucester boy) has been going on about laying bodies on the line, giving it everything - and in football, a speech like this would be metaphorical. Not in the game, for these men. They gave it everything, for the second week in a row, everyone from Vickery, to Corry, to wiry little Mathew Tait. Even Wilkinson, a man whose career was almost ended from an overly physical early career - still putting in massive hits on men taller and heavier than he. Most of these men will only get one shot at World Cup glory - for those who have already tasted it, they will want even more - and so, they will give everything to lift that trophy once more. And unlike the England football team...everyone who associates themselves with being English will be behind them.

The reason for this isn't because we know they are the greatest team to walk the planet, or even the best team in this World Cup. It's not because they thrill crowds with fabulous skills, or even great ruthlessness. The reason is, and it's the reason that would make this triumph greater than the one four years ago, this is a team we can be proud of - a team that is so bullishly English, we cannot help but associate with it. This World Cup has been full of wonderful sub-plots - the Argentina team coming of age, the Australians and the All Blacks being dumped out in a matter of hours, the emergence of Georgia and Tonga and Portugal, and the cold, harsh reality check suffered by the Irish and Welsh - but none have been more spectacular than the turnaround in fortunes of the England team. Ultimately, that word 'team' will be the key, and the one that will take the field in Paris next Sunday night have grown in character and stature in extraordinary fashion. One can only hope that it is not to finish second best - because that would be so characteristic of their footballing counterparts.

Get behind the England rugby team - they have filled us with every emotion possible in the World Cup this year. The only one missing is triumph.