There are sporting weekends and there are sporting weekends. The commencement of the Rugby World Cup on Friday evening heralded one of the finest three days of armchair viewing for some time. Rugby, football, cricket, tennis and Formula One all vied for impossible levels of attention, satisfied only by the advent of modern technology. Many a prayer of thanks will have been uttered to the heavens this weekend for the development of Sky Plus.
With the England rugby team's World Cup opener against the USA and their football counterpart's must-win Euro 2008 qualifier against Israel conveniently both scheduled for 5pm on Saturday careful planning was clearly required. The sheer extent of such action was only revealed upon further investigation of the listings.
A few deft selections later and Saturday's viewing comprised the All Blacks demolition of Italy, Australia's rout of Japan and then a crazed Ian Wright extolling the virtues of his son, Shaun Wright-Phillips, who scored the opener in England's 3-0 canter against a somewhat impotent Israeli side.
The Welsh football team failed to follow this fine performance as they succumbed 2-0 to Germany in the Millienium stadium courtesy of a brace from prolific marksman Miroslav Klose and the absence of Craig Bellamy.
Returning to the rugby courtesy of the invaluable red button on my shiny new remote I was then able to round off my day on the couch watching Dallaglio and co. pick apart the American part-timers. Or so I thought. Within the opening seconds it became clear that England's painfully unimpressive form running up to their defence of the Webb Ellis trophy was set to continue.
Fortunately it was only the quality of the victory that was in doubt, never the result; unlike the Welsh match on Sunday afternoon. "If you win you get a pat on the back, if you lose you get shot," commented Sir Clive Woodward in a recent BBC documentary on the rewards or otherwise of managing the Welsh rugby team, widely recognised as the toughest job in Wales.
Gareth Jenkins was on the verge of being hung out to dry as his team conceded a third try granting the Canadian opposition a dream 45th minute scoreline of 17-9. He restored the natural order though via the substitution of misfiring youngster James Hook and the introduction of fit-again former captain Stephen Jones and current captain Gareth Thomas. The resulting five Welsh tries triggered by their arrival prompted the question of why on earth they were absent in the first place.
Wales may have had their biggest scare since Gavin Henson's last tanning session but it was the French who scooped the biggest cock-up of the weekend. Friday night brought a feast of entertainment as France, plucky hosts of the Rugby World cup, choked against Argentina whose star is ever-rising in rugby circles. It was a marvellous victory of determination, bravery and tactical adeptness as the Argentines upset the old order and Bernard Laporte in particular with an opening game victory reminiscent of Cameroon rocking the Argentine football fraternity in the curtain-raiser for the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
On paper, in both instances, there should not really be any suprise but arrogance and tradition die hard and unrealistic expectancy with it. For the neutral, and the English, it made for a delightful start to proceedings.
For those whose eyes hadn't started to glaze from the sheer number of hours in front of a screen, or for whom sleep deprivation was not an issue, there was also England's series clinching one-day triumph over India in the cricket, Justin Henine and Roger Federer retaining their respective US Open crowns (in Federer's case for a remarkable fourth consecutive time) and Lewis Hamilton's 11th podium finish in 13 Formula One outings.
My brain overloaded as I saw Scotland crash over the line for their 6th try against Portugal and I reached for the standby button, content for the moment with what I had witnessed and not expecting Ireland to have any undue difficulties against Nambia, despite their subsequent efforts to try and prove me wrong.
The beauty of it is, that after a brief recharge, there is plenty more to come.
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