The profusion of sport this last two weeks has been unprecedented, given the new Rugby Nations Championship to go alongside a Football World Cup in the world’s biggest and most expensive sporting arenas. So the viewer will inevitably pick and choose based on drama, quality and a true sense of fan engagement. Do not take them for granted in what you do or say on and off the field or they will lose interest. We have recently seen examples of both, tears have flowed and sometimes the truth is hidden.

In the immediate aftermath of England’s painful World Cup exit, you first have to congratulate this band of brothers who gave it their all on a foreign field. They and their coach shared this tournament with their fans in stadium and the viewing public back home. Boys and girls were out in the parks and fields practising their Kane and Bellingham goal shooting and Pickford’s heroic goal-line saves. It is what a sport can inspire. The reality will hit hard, namely that they had to go and actually win the semifinal not defend a tenuous lead with 25 minutes to go against one of the most tenacious opponents in any sport worldwide who sang their national anthem as if it was their last, and who have come late in many matches of this campaign. I am sure I was not the only one screaming at the TV that they had to keep playing, hunt another goal for the knockout blow. My 9 year old asked immediately-‘ Gordon has just scored why is he being substituted?’ I do not think this is hindsight it was playing out in real time.

I do recall looking quizzically at Kenny Logan next to me in the Murrayfield crowd when Marcus Smith our starring fly half was substituted by Eddie Jones with 15 minutes to go and England ten points up away against Scotland some years ago. Other than some data point there was no sporting logic and so it proved, we lost. Sometimes you can overanalyse the position and that is where you need some live sporting experience alongside you to help avoid such decisions.

Tuchel has rightly impressed many with his honesty and bravery but he will know that he tactically invited Argentina of all countries to come and take the prize in a crushing result for a nation packed into pubs or in their living rooms, motorways and roads empty. This will take some time to process. As someone who has played in semifinals at the top level, it is simply about winning. Good luck to the coach in inspiring the boys for the bronze medal match wherever it is! But please let us not forget the heroes along the way and the joy and excitement they have brought to us. Top 4 in the world is not a bad place.

I am going to make one point about the way in which the referee was being verbally manhandled and more, almost as much as the England team was being rugby tackled sometimes in the penalty area. It was a deliberate Argentinian strategy and Anderson probably has more inflicted injuries post match than his England rugby counterparts. At what point does a referee on this biggest of world stages do his job?

I reminded myself that a victory against Argentina at the weekend on the rugby field will make it 1-1 but no one is listening to that! Scotland achieved a win down there as did England last year on tour, but who knows if a spill over of emotion is likely to ignite some more nationalist fervour. That could count against a squad for whom the conclusive battering of Fiji will not assuage the general fear about our position leading to Australia next year and what that means for current performance which needs to build confidence. Youngsters like Fin Smith, Pollock and Calouri are breaking down the door, yet the narrative from senior coaches and players alike leaves everyone cold because the onfield reality is far different. Cutting out sections of a match and claiming credit is a route to self delusion and didn’t we see it last night. The Springbok version is that one point is all that matters and that can and often is in the dying seconds of a contest.

Elsewhere in Nations rugby, the French are unleashing yet more top class centres onto the game – Kalvin Gourgues aged 21 their latest prodigy scored a consummate try against the Wallabies described as soft but in fact was the purest form of centre play on the outside burst- as England indulge potentially in yet another clunky centre pairing. Let us be clear, the ‘kid in the candy shop’ approach will mean that if we find the right combination it will be by chance not by design.

For England, their performance resembled that of a flat track bully in cricketing terms against a disconsolate and disconnected Fiji. Playing their home matches in the UK has been a disaster. It is all about money and the appalling way they have been treated by World Rugby has rendered them a shadow of what we saw at the last World Cup. A terrible look for the aspiring nations and there is no excuse, similar to Japan playing a home game in Newcastle, Australia. The Liverpudlian experiment was nothing that this football mad city could recognise as sport which does rely on a competitive dynamic as if I need to tell anyone that. No one blames the fact that Hollie Davidson had to officiate the way she and her team did, but the first half was as dismal for the whistleblowing as the post red card second half was no more than a training run out for a frustrated England team.

In tennis, the amazing women’s Wimbledon final was lit up by the post match interviews as both ladies won the hearts of the centre court and beyond. The human side of top sport is a priceless commodity, and while the men’s final was less dramatic due to the superlative talents of Sinner, both finalists articulated their true inner feelings and with splashes of dry humour rather than platitudes. It is all that a sporting fan wants to hear, and is what brings them back for more.

This is what makes my heart bleed for Kane and Bellingham, who are true sporting heroes in different ways, Kane for his unifying leadership and the respect he generates as one of the world’s best on the field. With Jude Bellingham, a star is born, a prodigious talent, emotion written large on his face for all to see and effort to match the talent. He is a forceful character and surely the next England Captain. English football may have got stuck on Route 66, but we can still be proud.