Well, England managed it again. They missed out on the Grand Slam and the Triple Crown.

BIG OLD EXPLANATORY NOTE
In Europe, every year there is a tournament known as the Six Nations Championship. In this, six countries, (England, Scotland, Wales, Irelnd, France, Italy) play each other at Rugby Union once. A league system then decides who has won the main championship. However, that is not all. Any country can also win the Grand Slam, where it wins all of its matches, and the British nations (+ Ireland) can compete for the Triple Crown, where one British team (or the Irish) beat all the other British nations (and Ireland). That is not at all clear, but I think you get the gist.
END OF EXPLANATORY NOTE

So anyway, for at least the past couple of years, England has won the main championship but keeps on missing out on the Grand Slam and Triple Crown in the last game of the season. We've done it twice in a row now; against Ireland yesterday, and (I think) against Scotland last year. Ireland won by a good margin, just like Scotland did last year, and what is so sickening is that we'd probably have got the Grand Slam and the Triple Crown had it not been for the Foot and Mouth Disease putting us off our stride and breaking up the team. Oh well, that's Murphy's Law for you...

What is very annoying about this is the way it highlights something about English sports. We can quite often get going well, but we can't finish off our opponents at all. I think Tim Henman has lost a very importnat tennis match after having his opponent at match point. What an Idiotic Nation we are. Well, kind of.

Phil-"At least we won the main championship"-bee