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Sports personalities back England

Justin Rose: Hoping England get a hole-in-one on Saturday

A couple of sports personalities ranging from golfers to Formula One drivers have all voiced their support for England to win the World Cup final on Saturday.

Golfer Justin Rose may have been born in South Africa but has nailed his colours firmly to the mast ahead of the final at the Stade de France in Paris.

"I'm desperate for England to win it - no doubt about it," said Rose.

However, there may be some rivalry in the Rose household - with brother Brandon supporting South Africa.

"Obviously I'm going to root for England, but my brother supports South Africa, so the banter has really started," said Rose.

"He grew up there and went to school there. He moved over to England for a while, but couldn't handle the weather and went back.

"I think when you go to school in England and represent your country you root for them.

"I watched the semi-final against the French. It was brilliant - such a tense game.

"It's not often that I actually get that into football or rugby or other sports, but I was really riveted by it."

Nick Dougherty, another of England's top golfers, said: "I was screaming at the TV as we beat the French - I was so excited.

"I'll certainly be watching on Saturday. I think we can do it. As a nation we seem to perform at our best when we've been written off.

"Having lost 36-0 to them what a great victory it would be. Four more years of pure enjoyment given how many Australians and South Africans we come up against on Tour."

Dougherty won the Alfred Dunhill Links title at St Andrews two weeks ago and before the final round Johann Rupert, the South African who is chairman of the sponsors, said to him: "You'd better win this because it's the only thing you're going to win as a nation this month.''

The 25-year-old from Liverpool said: "It would be lovely to ring him up after we've won."

Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton has turned cheerleader for England's World Cup rugby players and declared a common bond in drawing inspiration from Jamaica's 1988 Olympic bobsleigh team.

After the World Cup final in Paris, the 22-year-old McLaren driver takes to the track the next day for the title-deciding Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix.

Hamilton, who would be the first rookie world champion as well as the youngest, hoped to do his bit to make it a great weekend for English fans after the soccer team's disappointing Euro 2008 qualifying defeat in Russia on Wednesday.

"I'm just proud and pleased to be in that position where I can do something," said the Briton, four points clear of team-mate and double world champion Fernando Alonso with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen a further three behind.

"I really, really hope they win," the youngster said of the England rugby side.

"I was watching the last game and I had a bet on with a few friends. They were sure France were going to win and I said 'no way'.

"I also heard they are going to watch 'Cool Runnings' for inspiration for the last game and I watched it pretty recently as well," added Hamilton, whose paternal grandfather emigrated to Britain from Grenada in the West Indies.

"We're all going to try the best we can and to me it would be extremely special to both do it on the same weekend," Formula One's first black driver told reporters.

The 1993 film 'Cool Runnings' told the true story of how a group of Jamaican athletes overcame ridicule and adversity to represent the Caribbean country in bobsleigh at the Calgary Olympics.

England's rugby players, written off after an opening 36-0 defeat by South Africa in the group stages, have said they will watch the film before Saturday's final.

"I never imagined English rugby being mentioned in the same breath (as the movie) but our rollercoaster ride at this World Cup is beginning to feel like something out of a Hollywood script," England's Martin Corry wrote in the Guardian newspaper this week.