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All that glitters isn`t gold

Ashton: A knight in shining armour?

Good old England, hey? That's the stuff! Bulldogging it out, fighting the odds, conjuring up the spirit of the Blitz!

How quickly the horrors of the last four years are forgotten as legions of beleaguered fans wake up to the realisation that their side is the first to have reached back-to-back World Cup Finals on foreign soil.

But perhaps we forget too easily.

Apologies for peeing all over the bonfire, call me a sniffling curmudgeon and all the rest, but the best result for England's long-term future would have been a loss to Tonga and swift elimination from the tournament.

Don't get me wrong, I'm England's biggest fan. I just feel - nay, know - that a win over South Africa on Saturday will ensure that the problems that dog the English game are simply swept under the carpet. Even a battling defeat to the Boks would grant immunity from the sort of inquisition that is currently taking place in Wales, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland.

All I ask is that we all back up a little and remember that Brian Ashton's head was biding his shoulders 'adieu' just three short weeks ago. Now, rumour has it, he is on the very verge of being offered a four-year extension to what was initially a stop-gap appointment. What's all that about?

I'm not saying Ashton deserves the chop, far from it - he has made a silk purse out of a sow's ear. But are we not getting slightly ahead of ourselves? In the rush to re-embrace the spirit that defined the early noughties, we are forcing ourselves to see things that are just not there.

Those startling wins over Australia and France weren't down to careful planning, meticulous preparation or the nurturing of new talent. The force behind England's crazy-paved path to the Final came from the Grumpy Old Men's own overwhelming desire to cock a snoot at their critics. They wrenched those performances from the pit of their collective stomach. This wasn't rugby-by-whiteboard, nor was it the fruit of the mythical grassroots approach - it was a 22-man 'up yours' to all who had suggested England's triumph in 2003 was nothing but a flash in the pan.

Fair dues and good luck to Phil Vickery and his men. Sure, it ain't petty, but when was the last time we saw such passionate rugby?

But where will the English game be on Sunday? Either somersaulting down the Champs Élysées or quietly satisfied that an honourable second at the Rugby World Cup means that the ship is back on course after tacking wildly off course to ninth in the official World Rankings.

And then what? History will repeat itself - just see if it doesn't. The old heads will hang up their boots (surely for keeps this time!); the suits at Rugby House will spend the next two years counting their money and ignoring incoming calls; the clubs will continue to claim that they deserve more credit (literal and metaphoric) for supplying the tools that did the job; the congested schedule will continue to fell players like flies; and weakened England sides will continue to be flogged in far-flung corners of the world.

I hope I am wrong. I hope that the RFU sits down with Ashton and his cohorts in the next few weeks and that they have a rational chat about what can be expect and achieved over the next four years. I hope that they do extend his contract - or rather that he accepts their terms - and that they give him more leeway and support than they did the Knighted One in the corresponding chat of 2003. I hope that together they can hatch some sort of plan.

I hope that that chat is followed by an equally open discussion with the clubs. I hope that my inbox never again gets clogged up with contradicting press releases from various bodies purporting to represent the interests of the English game.

I appreciate that the path ahead is rocky and that some of the issues of the notorious 'Long-Form Agreement' would make Steven Hawkings despair, so all I hope for is dialogue and some sort of share vision, a unity of purpose, for English rugby.

Is that too much to ask? Well, it was beyond them last time.

Again, apologies for being the party pooper, but the sad truth is that one swallow - fine, feathered French beauty though it is - does not make a summer.

Your views, please!

LEST WE FORGET - ENGLAND'S LAST CUP-TO-CUP ROUTINE:

August 2007: France 22-9 England, Stade Velodrome
August 2007: England 15-21 France, Twickenham
August 2007: England 62-5 Wales, Twickenham
June 2007: South Africa 55-22 England, Loftus Versfeld
May 2007: South Africa 58-10 England, Free State Stadium
March 2007: Wales 27-18 England, Millennium Stadium
March 2007: England 26-18 France, Twickenham
February 2007: Ireland 43-13 England, Croke Park
February 2007: England 20-7 Italy, Twickenham
February 2007: England 42-20 Scotland, Twickenham
November 2006: England 14-25 South Africa, Twickenham
November 2006: England 23-21 South Africa, Twickenham
November 2006: England 18-25 Argentina, Twickenham
November 2006: England 20-41 New Zealand, Twickenham
June 2006: Australia 43-18 England, Telstra Dome
June 2006: Australia 34-3 England, Telstra Stadium
March 2006: England 24-28 Ireland, Twickenham
March 2006: France 31-6 England, Stade de France
February 2006: Scotland 18-12 England, Murrayfield
February 2006: Italy 16-31 England, Stadio Flaminio
February 2006: England 47-13 Wales, Twickenham
November 2005: England 40-3 Samoa, Twickenham
November 2005: England 19-23 New Zealand, Twickenham
November 2005: England 26-16 Australia, Twickenham
March 2005: England 43-22 Scotland, Twickenham
March 2005: England 39-7 Italy, Twickenham
February 2005: Ireland 19-13 England, Lansdowne Road
February 2005: England 17-18 France, Twickenham
February 2005: Wales 11-9 England, Millennium Stadium
November 2004: England 19-21 Australia, Twickenham
November 2004: England 32-16 South Africa, Twickenham
November 2004: England 70-0 Canada, Twickenham
June 2004: Australia 51-15 England, Suncorp Stadium
June 2004: New Zealand 36-12 England, Eden Park
June 2004: New Zealand 36-3 England, Carisbrook
March 2004: France 24-21 England, Stade de France
March 2004: England 31-21 Wales, Twickenham
March 2004: England 13-19 Ireland, Twickenham
February 2004: Scotland 13-35 England, Murrayfield
February 2004: Italy 9-50 England, Stadio Flaminio

By Andy Jackson