A Round of Applause for England (and Jules)

Malcolm, the die-hard Welshman from the Wrexham area of North Wales was hoping for expecting a total annihilation of England by the All Blacks in the Rugby Union Autumn International today. All this at the same time that he also rather hoped his own team might simultaneously scrape a result against the Wallabies in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Oh dear. Poor old Malcolm was disappointed on both counts in the end. If ever a 'borders Welshman' had his nationality tested, today was the day. He sat in the 'Cross Keys' pub with myself, Kevin and Liam in Knutsford this afternoon and perhaps struggled to work out his true allegiance, whilst we watched England triumph on Sky Sports. He probably should have stayed home and watched Wales get beat for free on BBC1 instead.

The picture above captures the exact moment of full time with the brilliantly attentive Jules the barmaid clapping enthusiastically to cheer-on glorious England. The lovely Jules actually helped serve us boys pints all throughout the game today. This allowed us to stay in our seats, whilst she brought all the drinks over, along with our change. I only found out afterwards that Jules hasn't actually worked for the Cross Keys for several years, and was only serving us today out of a pure love for her old job (either that, or one of us maybe).

I told Malcolm in the end he really should buy Jules a drink by way of a thank you. Well his was the final round

Hopefully, this much needed victory for England was not just down to the '16th man' and 24-hour bug called Mr E Coli, who (it was reported) played a blinder in undermining the All Blacks earlier this week!

Postscript: England ended New Zealand's 20-game unbeaten run with a sensational but unexpected 38-21 victory over the world champions at Twickenham today. In complete contrast, Kurtley Beale's last-minute try gave Australia a 14-12 victory over Wales in the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Wales have sadly have now lost all their last seven games. Oh dear, what a shame, never mind!