Of course it couldn’t last, the English and the Irish united against an injustice suffered by the latter but felt, too, by the former. Shane Breslin, who presides over the lively craic at Ireland’s eleven-a-side football site, draws attention to his thoughts on the “triumphalism” of English reaction to the World Cup draw. All enough, he suggests, to bring the Irish to their senses and quickly drop France as pantomime enemies because the English were, are and always will be the real thing. Shane’s a good lad, much liked at Salut! Sunderland (which generally has little time for internationals anyway). But he is guilty of disregarding both widespread English support for the Irish cause in Paris and also the fact that the reaction he criticises was more a press thing than an English thing. Build ‘em up, then knock ‘em down and, once they’re there, give ‘em a good kicking. This is his piece. See what you think (and pop over to his site to check the mixed response there)…

England’s first potential stumbling-block will be Brazil in the semi-finals. That’s how one newspaper reacted to the World Cup draw at the weekend, nicely doing its bit to restore the old enemy to its rightful place.

I don’t want to be xenophobic here – we all know the English do that better than anyone – but the reaction to Friday evening’s World Cup draw from our neighbours reminds us that they will soon replace France as our chief enemies once more.
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