THE trouble with euphoria is it never lasts, and I'm afraid last weekend's struck me as a little over the top. Beating the Argentinian footballers is a justifiable reason for a spot of triumphalism, although not quite enough for a repeat of The Sun's "Stick It Up Your Junta" headline. But inflicting a seventh successive defeat on the Australian rugby team should be regarded merely as necessary preparation for facing the All Blacks, while the cricket celebrations were premature.

Losing the captain and the toss, and going into the game with an inexperienced middle order plus a journeyman spinner making his Test debut, did not bode well. Yet England appeared to have victory in the bag after two days and to lose from there was extremely careless.

With their two spinners taking one wicket each in the match, it looks like flawed selection, although it might not have been had they won the toss, as Danish Kaneria's four-wicket haul on the last day suggested.

England badly miss Simon Jones and their attack suddenly looks too dependent on Freddie Flintoff, who will be burnt out if he continues to bowl twice as many overs as one of the spinners.

If Shaun Udal could be entrusted with only 12 overs in the second innings he ought to make way for Jimmy Anderson or Liam Plunkett, while also highlighting the need to groom Alex Louden as a middle order batsman who can do a job as a second spinner.

At least it was another thrilling Test, but England may have missed the boat. As they move north to Faisalabad the light will fade more quickly, time will be lost and the Pakistanis will be happy to play for a draw.

THERE will be a huge focus on the front row in tomorrow's match against the All Blacks, when the combatants can be expected to engage like enraged rhinos. Fears that an Aussie prop had suffered a serious neck injury in last week's match proved unfounded but it is only a matter of time before someone is paralysed by a collapsing scrum in a high-profile match.

Rugby League scrums have always seemed a farce, but perhaps they have it right in seeing them merely as a means of restarting the game. The fiercely combative element of Union scrums is seen by the macho men as the cornerstone of the contest, even though referees invariably allow scrum halves to favour their own side when putting the ball in.

When one side has developed its scrummaging to the point where it is vastly superior to the opposition's there is always the danger that the advantage will be wiped out by injuries forcing the pointless exercise of uncontested scrums, as happened against Australia.

Sides could feign injury to achieve this and the only solution is to have yet more replacements. Either that or go down the Rugby League route and get on with the running and handling in which I expect the All Blacks to teach us a lesson.

IT WAS mentioned here last week that the All Blacks played at Hartlepool on their inaugural tour 100 years ago and I now hear that the occasion is to be celebrated on Sunday. We have not been furnished with details, but I understand the Old Friarage will stage a game between a Boys Brigade Old Boys XV and a Durham County President's New Zealand XV. Just thought rugby fans might like to know.

IT'S all happening in China, who are a safe bet to top the medals table when they stage the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Shanghai has been the recent focus of sporting attention with golf's HSBC Championship and tennis's Masters Cup.

In the golf David Howell brilliantly held off Tiger Woods to win the opening event of the 2006 European Tour, which now knows boundaries of neither space nor time. There's another event in China next week and the Tour will be back there in March and for two more events in April.

Woods, who received more than £1m in appearance money, is used to the attention and was expected to overhaul his one-stroke deficit going into the final round. But Howell did supremely well to stretch his lead by two in view of the fact that the thousands of enthusiastic Chinese were constantly clicking their mobile phone cameras.

It is clear, however, that there are now too many tournaments to guarantee the top players' participation in events like the World Matchplay or the World Cup, which started in Portugal yesterday, and the same is happening in tennis.

The mandarins of Shanghai abandoned their inscrutable smiles to lambast Andre Agassi after he became the fifth player to pull out on Monday, citing a sprained ankle and joining Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal on the sidelines. If only Tim Henman had been fit.

THE tension is mounting with only three weeks to go until Audley Harrison fights Danny Williams for the British heavyweight title. If he wins he will suddenly become a contender for the world title vacated by Vitali Klitschko's retirement. The excitement is too much to bear.

Published: 18/11/2005