For me, the sporting highlights of the new century were not the 5th rowing gold in Sydney, the 1-5 rout in Munich or the 8th round KO in Memphis. I'll remember 31-28 at Twickenham, 13-15 in Wellington and 14-25 in Melbourne for much longer.
I grew up playing rugby when Wales were the dominant team and England more often lost than won. Then we started winning in Paris, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Dublin and the grand slams came. But we were still a long way from challenging the southern hemisphere teams.
Until now. We beat Australia and South Africa in November 2001 and then New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in November 2002. We started 2003 with a 6 Nations grand slam where we scored 18 tries and conceded only 46 points, and then pulled out historic wins in Wellington and Melbourne.
And now of course victory in the best Rugby World Cup so far. Hard fought pool games against South Africa and Samoa. A tight quarter-final against a resurgent Wales and a semi-final where we over-powered France. And then the final of finals. One hundred minutes of tense, gritty heaven. I know that some people want to see more 'pretty' rugby, but I was a back-row and second-row forward, so I appreciate the hard stuff too.
The strange part of all this is that for most the year I feel British and European. But put 15 players in white shirts and send them out on a rugby pitch, and suddenly I'm English.
John