Brothers In Arms...

...Of all the tales to emerge from the recent wondrous rugby World Cup is this inspiring story of two men separated by all that God could throw at them - the one French, the other an Englishman - yet united in a sporting brotherhood of the finest kind humanity can forge.

They met, these two great nationalists, in Toulouse at some stage in the tournament. They drank, they chatted, they shared their passion for their sport and their respective teams - as indeed rugby though not of course football fans can do in such circs.

And in the course of the conversation the Frenchman revealed that he had two treasured tickets for the final in Paris, much to the envy, naturally, of the Englishman who did not.

But then the Frenchman said "Now look here dear chap" - forgive me if I do not attempt either the accent or the style - "I assume - nay I am certain of it - that my great team will be a finalist and yours will not. That being so, you can imagine my sheer delight in being there to cheer my team to its pre-ordained victory. If, however, fate should fall the reverse and your heroes will be there whilst mine shan't - aha, aha, aha, - then I shall give [emphasis on the 'give'] you my tickets, as you are a fan of the sport and I shall know how much it would mean to you to be there in my place."

This generous offer - more perhaps within the realm of fantasy than imagination - led to the exchange of telephone numbers, though not, in the mind of the Englishman, would it result in more. But it did. For no sooner had England qualified for the final and France not, than the 'Jean de' Toulouse was on the blower saying he was on his way to Paris and would 'Jonny' Englishman care to meet him at a named bistro in order to take charge of the two promised tickets.

Tickets were duly handed over and no money, howsoever strongly pressed upon the good fellow by our boy, would be taken in return. Not one Euro, not one sous.

Pure, selfless, international, sporting altruism that was.

Hope for us all? Not necessarily, but if that can happen then pretty well anything else for the good might.

A 'Vive La France' may very well be in order here, and that takes some saying round these parts I can tell you!