Strike Whilst It's Hot - International Rugby League

We're seven games in to this 2013 Rugby League World Cup and hasn't it been great so far!

We've had good crowds, close games, big hits, upsets, skill and drama.

I hope it continues throughout. There are some games that will test the good will earned so far - the Ireland v Australia game is one to really test where we're at and it would be great to see that risk deliver - but this is the time to come up with a plan. A way forward that holds onto this early momentum. Not just for this tournament, but the international game beyond.

Us fans should enjoy the present, but the administrators at the RLIF and the national bodies need consider the future. They need to come up with a plan to take advantage of the current positive light shining on the international game.

There is a dark cloud hovering in the background of this tournament - that no formal announcements for the 2014 international calendar or beyond to the next world cup have been made.

Now is the time, and here is what I would suggest.

A five year rotation of events. I know most international sporting rotations are four years (olympics, soccer world cups, lions tours etc.) but they don't have to be.

Say 2013 is Year One. It's a world cup year, so the next world cup should be 2018. Unless the strength of the weaker/emerging nations comes on fast, this year's format makes sense as its working well!

Year Two (i.e. 2014 in my example) - Australia or New Zealand (alternating) play a proper tour and test series against Great Britain in Britain. Other European / North American nations host tours from Pacific Island nations, or vice versa.

Year Three (2015) - GB tour Australia or New Zealand (alternating) in test series with tour games hopefully thrown in. Other European and North American sides play tour games with Pacific Islands again (alternate northern/southern hemisphere).

Year Four (2016) - Britain breaks into constituent parts for teams to build to the next world cup. A number of four nations tournaments based on world ranking will be played. The 'Top Four' league alternates between England and Australia, other leagues moving between northern and southern hemisphere based on teams involved/finances etc.

Year Five (2017) - a European nations tournament between top 6 (8 if game grows) nations in region and an equivalent for southern hemisphere and other regions.

Ranking points from year four and year five games would decide which nations join Australia, New Zealand and England at the next world cup.

I think key is helping emerging nations grow, both with domestic exposure and from greater buy in to their long term cause by qualifying players from NRL and Super League.

That's my proposal (admittedly not thought through in great detail!), what's yours?

England's World Cup Half Back Options

Probably the most difficult positions England (or Great Britain) have found to fill in the last 20 years have been the crucial 6 and 7 positions.

Since 2008, 13 different combinations have started international matches for England. That starts to underline the problem, although Kevin Sinfield and Richie Myler have formed a bit of a regular pairing in the recent past. The real problem though is no-one knows who to pick, and arguments can be made for a number of players.

The front-runners and most mentioned names are Sinfield, Myler, Rangi Chase and Gareth Widdop. A host of other players could also be considered in the reckoning based on being in and around the England squads in recent years - Rob Burrow, Danny McGuire, Matty Smith, Jonny Lomax and Stefan Ratchford are those I see as being the outside chances of World Cup places, not to mention Danny Brough who has firmed tied himself to Scotland's cause now.

Burrow has played a lot of dummy half (you can't call him a hooker!), Lomax has predominantly been seen as a full-back this year at St Helens and Ratchford has played across the back line for Warrington, but all these players would are naturals in the halves. Their numbers are skewed by the positions they've played, but they are definite options for England.

Here are this season's current numbers for the players in the hunt (as of 1 August 2013 - Super League or NRL games only) to see how the players are going - (note: the available NRL stats aren't consistent with the Super League ones so Gareth Widdop is missing some numbers, and different positions played by some players affects some numbers, which I will try and point out where needed)
I'm going to start with Kevin Sinfield. It seems that he will be the captain of the team, so it would be a massive shock if he doesn't play. Some talk has been had about him being used at hooker if James Roby doesn't get over his injury issues, and people are still confused about the number 13 he wears on his Leeds shirt, but if he plays I can't see it being outside of the halves.

His leadership shouldn't be questioned, so with his club record so great in big matches you have to credit him in that regard and feel that will work in his favour for England selection. A big factor in close games is goal kicking, and of the kickers in the sample he is performing the best this year at 87% success. These factors almost makes him worth his place you would feel.

He also leads the group in some defensive categories - total tackles, marker tackles and tackles per game - as well as having an good tackle success percentage (93%). These numbers might be bumped up from a half back perspective because he tends to defend more central than halves as Rob Burrow is hidden out wide when he is playing a dummy half role. This forces more defensive involvement and it should be noted he give away the most penalties of the player looked at.

The real criticism is his offensive productivity - he isn't likely to break the line or bust a tackle very much and he hasn't had much immediate impact on tries being scored, with a contribution of less than a one try or assist per game. Given how often he is on the ball, it has to be considered a weakness that he isn't creating more scores.

Richie Myler has been his chief partner of late in England sides. Myler has been impressive this year in taking more responsibility in organising and running the Warrington attack in Lee Briers extended absences. Contributing tries is the biggest positive for him - having scored the most and assisted the second most of England's options. Only Rangi Chase, who touches the ball a lot more, makes more metres per game out of the players who have played in the halves predominantly this year. He can break tackles and hit gaps as well as get the ball away to teammates. He is definitely a threat in attack, maybe more across the board than any of the other options.

As well as the organisation concerns that he now seems to have put to bed, the main question over Myler might be defence. A 90% tackle success, a low number of penalties and a reasonable effort as a marker defender suggest he might have upped his game in this area too. That leaves only his long kicking game as a potential issue, but if he has Sinfield and Sam Tomkins around then he has support in that area.

Rangi Chase is a controversial figure in this shake up. Many don't see him as being an acceptable choice because of his eligibility being on a residency basis. But he is available so I'll not dwell on that issue.

He leads many categories in the sample when it comes to having ball in hand - tackle busts, carries, gaining metres, attacking kicks and offloads are all things he does in greater amounts than the others. He has also kicked a few 40/20s, which can be useful. As you would expect with the player who touches the ball the most, he also makes the most errors, although an average of almost 2 per game could be regarded as too high when England will be playing teams that can take advantage.

He is a creative players who tries things and pulls things off that other players simply can't do, but the big question is in defence. He has the worst tackle success of the group by a wide margin, especially from his main rivals for the places, and this is despite him being by far the least active in defence (aside from Lomax, who having played mostly full-back wouldn't be called on to tackle often being behind the defensive line). Chase only makes 7.3 successful tackles per match and he has missed more tackles than any other player. Temperament may also be an issue with previous history of suspension and being the only England eligible player to have spent time in the sin-bin this year.

Gareth Widdop is a player who hasn't been given a starting role in the halves for England yet. This is despite the major point on his side that he is the only option with NRL experience, and some experience at that winning the Grand Final with Melbourne in 2012 and getting a big money contract with St George for 2014 onwards.

His stats are hard to judge as they aren't complete and I can't be sure they are recorded consistently with the Super League numbers. The areas he performs best are average gain per carry and the relatively low error count. His try involvement is very low and he doesn't carry the ball much, although he has to compete with the Queensland and Australia 'Big 3' for play making responsibilities and who wouldn't play second fiddle to them. His defensive numbers aren't great either though, but I would put a big asterisk on all his figures in that he does play in the better stronger competition. He also has an injury question mark, with his NRL season almost certainly ended by injury already.

Of the rest, Rob Burrow's lack of errors is impressive, but his high number of dummy half runs can partially be ignored when considering him as a half. His versatility could help hm feature in the squad and the odd burst out of dummy half from him could be dangerous, but I'm not looking at him as a 'hooker' option here. He hasn't missed many tackles, but he doesn't make many either and often get helped out by his teammates, so I don't know how much you can read into this.

Danny McGuire is another like Sinfield and Widdop who hasn't really created a great deal for teammates. He has missed quite a lot of the season with injury and doesn't stand out in any of the categories. He hasn't really performed at the international level in the past and his chance may have ran out because of his lack of impact on the current season, although with Leeds you never know what form might be to come from August onwards, which might put him more in the picture.

Matty Smith got into the frame during the 2012 Exiles series and then got a move to Wigan where he will experience a final and playoff football for the first time as a key player in the team. He has shown usefulness in 40/20 and drop goal kicking, but I'm not sure this is enough to overcome some of the other issues. His defending isn't always brilliant, although a 93% tackle success is promising. He doesn't make many metres himself and doesn't directly get involved in many tries, even though he often features in the build up. The biggest plus for him is a pre-existing relationship with Sam Tomkins for those sweep plays you would look to use Sam on, but I can't see that getting him selected. He is only really an option if others get injured before October.

Jonny Lomax hasn't been playing in the halves, which accounts for his low tackle and kicking numbers. He hasn't given away many penalties or errors, but his relative lack of involvement would be a cause for this. He is another who has missed a lot of play through injury and seeing him in the full-back role for Saints means he too would only be an option if there are injuries to other, despite he definite talent and creative potential.

Stefan Ratchford is an interesting one for me. His versatility and club form could see him find a place in the squad yet, but his lack of game time as a half might work against him getting that 6 shirt on his back. He has good numbers for tackle busts and breaks, but this will be assisted by him running in the centres where you get more space and often oppose smaller players. He has a glorious natural talent for the game, but I don't really see him making the final cut unfortunately - he isn't first choice for his club so you wouldn't expect him to be for his country.

One final player to look at is Danny Brough, who we know won't be playing for England. He has had a great season so far with Huddersfield. He has been very creative and his kicking game, whether attacking or from deep (6 40/20s), has been a massive factor in Huddersfield's season. He's a good goal kicker, although second to Sinfield. He doesn't have stand out defensive numbers and you think he can be targeted, particularly by direct running second row forwards. He would be a very nice option for England and I'd probably on form have him in my starting pair despite some defensive questions but he'll be leading Scotland instead.

So, who would I pick. Well for all the criticism I've labelled at Sinfield for years as I feel he has been overrated as a player, you can't overrate him as a leader. He is the captain and I would pick him in my half back combo. His kicking game can be a momentum changer as he quickly drives penalties to touch or knocks over goals from all angles. Also, we'll need to defend hard and physically against the Aussies and Kiwis and his added size and tackling numbers will help in that regards. You can surround him with speed and spark in the other six backs with the talent available to Steve McNamara in a fully fit England squad.

Alongside him I would pick Richie Myler. They've developed some rapport in the last four or five England games and he does have the attacking spark Sinfield might lack whilst not being as much of a liability as Rangi Chase can be when he doesn't come off, which against the best in the world it will be hard to do for an inconsistent and often very individual talent.

Widdop does play NRL but he won't be match ready you have to expect. I also wouldn't play him with Sinfield as I don't think there would be enough creativity and sharp attacking instinct in front of some tough defensive lines. If he were fit, and if Sinfield weren't the captain, then I'd probably put the 6 shirt on his back. In an ideal world I think I would want Widdop and Brough in this world cup squad as the starting halves, but Sinfield and Myler are the best combination that will be available in my opinion.

Is it time for pre-qualifying?

This debate raised its head again in England because we actually beat a team we're expected to by an distance we're supposed to be beating them by, and everyone asked if we should even be playing them in the first place. But it's not a new debate, and it's not just England that have asked the question.

Now I'm asking the question should there be pre-qualification in Europe for international football tournaments? And, the other question that would need some serious consideration if the first one was answered 'yes', how would this be organised?

A quick Google search will give you an array of pieces that try to answer the first question. Most of them flap around with some sentiment towards the spirit of the underdog before dismissing the 'minnows' as a waste of time for the larger nations with no-one really benefiting from one sided scorelines. I would argue these games bestow no real benefit to the top nations, or even the middle-tier nations, but it's hard to say they are of no benefit to the lesser nations - those shop owners and insurance salesmen that put on their national colours with pride and try valiantly in vain against some of the best players in the world. For the blokes playing it must be great. For the fans, they get to see the top players in their country. For the national bodies, they get to fund the running of their national team for another campaign. For hoteliers, restaurateurs, bar owners, taxi drivers, these games are a massive boost.

Now, getting rid of these teams, by and large, from the main qualification process will only be of benefit to the better footballing countries. It cuts down the amount of predictable and dull games they have to play to get to a World Cup or Euros. It means they can fill the gaps now arising in the international calendar with more lucrative friendly games against each other or the powerhouses of South America.

In European club competition we also see various levels of qualification criteria and pre-qualification, designed to get the biggest teams more often than not playing in the important stages of tournaments. It begs the question why a different attitude is taken to national competition?

Well one clear answer is numbers. There are far more poor quality clubs than countries, relatively speaking. However, one startling fact going against the numbers argument is that only UEFA and CONMEBOL (South America) don't have any pre-qualifying for World Cup tournaments - the South American confederation only has 10 teams mind, UEFA has 53, the joint highest. The others all whittle things down before qualification proper gets under way.

The general consensus is pre-qualification would be the way to go. The problem people who get to this conclusion, however they have got there, all stumble upon is how to arrange this. I have an idea...

The World Cup
For the World Cup, teams are generally seeded by world rankings, rightly or wrongly. I don't see any reason to move away from that. Generally 13 European countries get to the finals. An decent group size would be 5 nations per group, spread across 9 groups, means 45 of the 53 still get to the qualification proper.

The top 4 seeds in each group will be drawn from seeded groups of 9, making up 36 of the qualification competitors. The final pot would could from a pre-qualifying playoff round. Of the 17 remaining nations, the best would be straight in, the others would play each over two-legs in an open draw to gain one of the remaining 8 spots. The 8 teams that miss out can do what they will for two years - play a tournament amongst themselves, try and draw some lucrative friendly form bigger nations etc. Group winners and best runner up go to the dance, along with 4 winners of runners up playoffs.

That could work. Fewer games in qualification generally. The really poor teams that never look like improving won't be wasting anyone's time. As things stand, Northern Ireland would be pre-qualifying and Scotland are on the brink.

The Euros
Oh, darn it, here's where UEFA mess it up. For some reason they now want 24 nations making up the finals for this tournament. That's nearly half the members of the confederation. When you think of it that way, what's the point of pre-qualifying?

A better way to go would be to not make the best 8 teams have to qualify at all (how you decide best 8 would be up for debate - world rankings aren't really used for this tournament, maybe go with the quarter finalists last time around auto qualify). Really, reducing qualifying stages is for their benefit anyway so that they play less games against poorer teams. We know they are highly likely to get into a 24 team competition anyway, the outcome is known in advance, another reason people argue for pre-qualifying.

Then the remaining 45 battle it out in 9 groups of 5. Here, the minnows play the 2nd tier countries, giving them a chance to play against some bigger countries - for example, Croatia, Netherlands and Russia would be in the pot based on not being Euro 2012 quarter finalists. The holder and host should auto-qualify too, so if the host isn't in the 8 previous quarter finalists, it just reduces the amount of teams in the qualification stage by one.

These are my poorly conceived ideas if UEFA decide to cut down the amount of frankly boring international qualification games. Anyone do any better?

Netball - on the up?

Viewers of Sky Sports recently had the chance to see an English Ashes whitewash. The sport? Netball!

England's world No.3 team took on the world No.1 and gave them what for. The feat was made even more remarkable by the fact that England had only beaten the Aussie side TWICE before this series and now that total is FIVE.

All the soundbites coming out of the series was how this is a huge step for the sport in this country, that is in its strongest ever position and will push on from here. I felt inclined to look into this a bit further to see if the buzz is justified.

Well, not only were the three games won by England, but they were won to sold out crowds. Ok, the venues aren't massive capacity centres, but an aggregate attendance of around 16,000 saw the three games live at the venues.

Sport England definitely feel the sport is going in the right direction. Whilst a number of more high profile sports like Tennis and Rugby Union have seen funding cut for the four year cycle starting 2013, Netball has seen an increase to £25.3million from £18.7million given for the last four year cycle.

The funding increase is based on participation figures increasing by a third during the four year period. An increase of 40,000 people playing netball at least once a week during the period has seen overall participation rise to around 160,000 players per week. 

During the period, participation increases were seen across age groups and demographics, but notable increases were seen in the age group 16-25 (25,000). The satisfied one of the key aims of retaining players to the game that are leaving schools and colleges .

The figures show a great success story at grass roots level. This is supported by the fact that Sport England funding figures during the period just ended included a bonus £1million that was awarded by The National Lottery as reward for Netball England's 'Back to Netball' program. This program has been key in the boost in participation. The 'Back to Netball' initiative was showcased as a gentle introduction into sport and gives people from a variety of social, economic and ethnic backgrounds the chance to play. Clearly the number show it has worked.

With Netball it isn't all about grassroots, as the England team have recently shown. Netball is one of only three non-Olympic sports that gets Sport England funding for the elite level of the game. £5million of the £25million allocated to the sport will go towards the senior elite team over the next four years. Key in this cycle, and undoubtedly a major reason for the elite level funding, is the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Building into that and as part of the sport's growth is an increase to 12 test matches a year from six - so we can expect more series like the triumphant one we've just seen.

Optimism is high at the top level of the game. Funding isn't the only reason for this. As well as having an organised regularly televised domestic league - the Superleague - for our players to compete in with a host of international stars featured, the top players are also now playing in the top league in the world - the ANZ League. Three players from the England squad are playing in this league now and the experts say it showed from the performances in the recent series win.

Attendances in the Superleague aren't great (around 30,000 total in the 2011 72 game season), but trends have been upwards and some individual games have been able to attract four figure crowds. Sky Sports broadcast 6 live games in 2012, up from 4 in 2011. Typically broadcast on Thursday nights in late winter/early spring, the live games will have competed at times with Europa League football and Premier League Darts for viewers. Despite this, viewing figures have been promising. The 2011 Grand Final attracted 90,000 live viewers, and personalities like Gary and Phil's sister Tracey Neville don't hurt the games image at all.

The ashes series success has given the sport great exposure in the national media. Interview spots on BBC and Sky Sports News have followed and newspaper column inches have been dedicated more than ever before. So where next?

Well, the sport hasn't moved out of definite minority status yet, that's for sure. Participation figures are more than promising, but I feel this is still a participation sport, not a spectator sport. Media attention and sponsorship opportunities are on the up right now, but this has to be followed by a greater commitment to increasing audiences in arenas and on TV if the sport truly wants to get the national exposure the passionate contributors to the game feel it deserves.

A long term aim is to be an Olympic sport. The way I see it, being a participation over spectator sport plays into the Olympic wheelhouse - it's basically a festival of high participation sports. The major stumbling block there is that this is a women only sport. Sports tends to be a male dominated area, making it hard to see a female sport dislodging a male sport on the Olympic slate. Another issue is this is seen to be a Commonwealth only sport - like cricket and bowls, it would be unusual to see the leap to the Olympic arena. Rugby has made the leap, but through the more accessible Sevens game which already has wider global appeal. Maybe having a 3rd best team that has only beaten the best team once in a series ever doesn't help too - there isn't much depth and unpredictability in the international game.

Me, personally, I'd much prefer netball in place of the completely uninspiring Women's Basketball - but convincing the IOC and their sponsors isn't something I see as likely.

Netball - definitely on the up in the UK, and in Australasia, but a long way off reaching the promised land. But hey, Gold for England in Glasgow would be pretty great.

2012 - This Sporting Year

I'm happy to take an unashamedly UK biased view on the many exciting sporting triumphs of 2012 - that means Phelps and Bolt won't be dwelt upon, Messi's record year isn't focused on and Vettel's three in a row is only getting a mention because his Red Bull team is led by a British brain trust.

The first notable British success was the Leeds Rhinos regaining the Rugby League World Club Challenge title, beating the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 26-12 at Headingley in February. Ryan Hall was the star of the show and solidified his reputation as the game's leading winger to an international audience. He went on to retain his International Winger of the Year title in 2012, helped no doubt by this early season 2-try performance.

The late winter and early spring belonged to the Welsh as they brought home their 11th Grand Slam by sweeping through the Six Nations Tournament. They did so with an impressive points difference, over a England team that managed four largely uninspiring victories and an inconsistent if (relatively) exciting Ireland team.

As the spring turned into early summer, two great sporting dramas unfolded in football. Manchester City won, lost, then won again the Premier League title. The league run in was dramatic and suspense-filled. It was expected that the 'unmissable' derby at the end of April would be the most dramatic night, but a poor United performance meant the occasion was a little flat, even if it changed the league leadership. What the 1-0 City win did was set up the last day, when the drama really came to life. City led then trailed. Joey Barton blew a fuse that prompted his Franglish lessons. United finished their season as title holders, before City proved themselves as Champions with the 94th minute Aguero strike meant some really noisy neighbours could sound off and celebrate.

If the domestic season belonged to City, in Europe the stars aligned for Chelsea to finally (surely??) satisfy their owner with a Champions League victory. Love them or hate them, you couldn't really help but support Chelsea on their journey, especially as party crasher extraordinaire JT was missing from the final. Charmed existence and Petr Cech penalty saves saw Chelsea roll on from the desperate February night in Napoli to dump out Barcelona and disappoint Bayern Munich in their own back yard to lift the Champion League title. I can't imagine watching Chelsea again with such enthusiasm for them to win. It was a special campaign and 19 May 2012 special night...and then a few months later they sack the coach that won the prize! Classic Ambramovic eh!?

19 May 2012 wasn't just a special night for Chelsea FC - Leinster Rugby were also celebrating a European Cup triumph of their own. They retained their title against national counterparts Ulster at a sold out Twickenham stadium. It represented 3 wins in four years and a record winning total and margin in the final of the northern hemisphere's premier club competition. This has really created a dynasty in club rugby for the boys in blue and cemented this teams place in history.

The early summer saw some more Rugby Union, but none of the home nations really excelled themselves during their respective summer tours, although Scotland earned a notable win in Australia...but this is about glory and exciting, so not much can be said about the summer international series really.

Similarly worth skimming over is Euro 2012. Ireland were probably the worst team involved, trying to play like a relegation battling Premier League team in a cup tie against a bunch of guys who actually bothered to learn the techniques required to perform with a football. England weren't much better and scratched their way to an unimpressive quarter final penalty defeat to Italy.

We also had a bit of British success at Wimbledon for the first time in 76 years - but it wasn't Andy Murray, who valiantly reached the final but just fell short against Roger Federer after giving everything he had physically and emotionally. It was Jonny Marray in the men's doubles with his Danish partner Freddie Neilsen. Coming all the way from late wildcard entry to Wimbledon champion is the stuff great stories are made from...and dodgy Kirsten Dunst vehicles too.

But all that was OK, and football didn't really matter anymore anyway, the summer was in full swing and we all saddled up to the great ride towards the home Olympics, and the man peddling us there was Bradley Wiggins. He became the first Brit to win the Tour de France and set the country on an upwards path. Leading the race from stage 7 onwards, he really sealed the win with his second stage win dominating the time trail on the penultimate day, but not one to rest on his laurels, he went all out the next day to help team-mate Mark Cavendish win the race down the Champs-Élysées for the fourth successive year. It was the great tour for Britain, with British riders picking up seven stage wins and 1st and 2nd positions on the final podium. Allez Wiggo and welcome to summer!!

Froome, Cav and Wiggo were just the warm up act to the real star event of 2012 - the London Olympic Games. And boy what a games these were. Great Britain landed third place in the medal table with an overall haul of 65, made up of 29 glorious golds, 17 scintillating silvers and 19 brilliant bronzes. There were so many brilliant individual performances its impossible to list them all so I'll just pick out some of  my personal highlights. Team GB got off to a slow start with Lizzie Armistead picking up the first medal with silver in the women's road race on the Day 2 proper of the games. Day 3 provided an unexpected but incredibly tense and enjoyable bronze from the mens gymnastic team - I found a new respect for the athletes of this very demanding sport. We had to wait until Day 5 to taste gold for the first time. Almost inevitably, rowing and cycling came good and started the gold rush, with Bradley Wiggins backing up his Tour victory with a gold medal in the Time Trail only days later. A Gold-Silver combo in the mens C-2 canoe slalom was another personal highlight of week 1, as well as roaring wins in the velodrome for the men's team sprint and pursuit squads and 'Queen' Victoria Pendleton. Then came 'Super Saturday', although you could argue that title doesn't even do it justice. It started with the thrilling and powerful display from the men's coxless fours, with the women's double skull following suit at Eton Dorney. The women's team pursuit raised the flag in the velodrome before all eyes turned on to the Stadium and the athletics. Jess Ennis had carried her tag as the face of the games extremely well as she romped to personal bests through day one of the heptathlon before crowning it with an equally brilliant day two of competition. And just as she finished celebrating a roar went up from the long jump where Greg Rutherford leaped to a slightly less expected gold. There wasn't much time to celebrate that before the starters gun went to start the men's 10,000m and Mo Farah cruised round the track in total control before making that epic kick for the line to take gold and bring the Mobot to the international audience. The Sunday was pretty super too - Ben Ainslie's fourth gold in four games painted the Dorset coastline gold before Andy Murray showed incredible resilience to finally win something big at Wimbledon and finally stop being that Scottish tennis player and became that British tennis hero. He had to beat Djokovic in the semi and Federer in the final to take a well earned gold, and followed that up after a very short break to win silver with Laura Robson in the mixed doubles. The men's pommel horse final fitted in and around the tennis with my red button switching and Louis Smith came as close to victory as he could in picking up silver, with Max Whitlock taking a surprise bronze. The equestrian team then stepped up to gold winning action with the jumping more enjoyable to watch than the dressage, but massive credit to both. Laura Trott showed there was someone to take the flame from Pendleton in women's cycling and Sir Chris Hoy cemented his place as Britain's Greatest Olympian with a tearful victory in the keirin. The Brownlee's brought home gold and bronze in the triathlon and Mo Farah backed up the 10km with the 5km gold on the final Saturday, before boxing brought the games home for Team GB. Nicola Adams had already made history as the first woman to take boxing gold, then the men took over with four more medals including golds for Luke Campbell and then on the final day for Anthony Joshua. Jade Jones, Beth Tweddle and the women's hockey team also gave some special moments.

Some British eyes could have been forgiven for switching away from the Olympics on those last few nights to watch coverage from over the pond of the US PGA Championships at Kiawah Island. Anyone doing so would have seen Rory McIlroy seal his place at the top of the golfing world in winning his second major at the age of only 23, and doing so by a tournament record margin. This was part of a stand out year for Rory in which he lead both the US and European money lists and picked up number player of the year awards.

Next up were the Paralympic Games. I'm not going to lie - I barely watched these games. A combination of big Wigan Warriors fixtures, the start of the NFL season and a late summer holiday to Barcelona where coverage was hard to come by meant I missed much of the excitement of what has been called the greatest ever Paralympics, and certainly the biggest and best attended Paralympics in history. Paralympics GB also landed third place in the medals table, with 34 golds, 43 silvers and 43 bronzes making an incredible total of 120 medals for the GB athletes. Athletics, cycling and swimming were the headline events, with the most notable performers being David Weir, Sarah Storey and Ellie Simmonds in the respective sports - all three have seen their performances recognised with nominations for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Another distraction from the Paralympic Games was one of our Olympic heroes gunning for personal glory. British tennis hero Andy Murray was back on his crusade to win a major and justify his place amongst the sports elite. The weather delays and the elongation of the tournament to the Monday night just helped build the tension as Murray made it to his second grand slam final in a row. Djokovic was the defending champion and the favourite going in to the final, but Murray has always been known for his tenacity and battling qualities. Murray started well, as he had done in the Wimbledon final, and here he got two sets up, before a Djokovic fightback left all Brits feeling the same sense of inevitability that Andy just couldn't get over the line. The first set tiebreaker felt endless, running on for 22 points. Some of the rallies were incredible, one getting up to 54 shots. The match equalled the record for duration at 4 hours and 54 minutes. Every time Andy broke, you felt Novak would come back, but when Novak broke you didn't feel like Andy would wane like he had in big matches before. He carried the fight and eventually sealed it with a 6-2 final set...and we could go to bed! Another late finish for UK viewers!

Autumn started to roll in, and after the summer of cycling, Olympics and tennis, you wouldn't think it could get much better - but 2012 had more to come, and the end of September saw one of the greatest sporting comebacks ever. I nearly had to miss watching the Ryder Cup because I was supposed to be cycling coast to coast across England, but circumstances cancelled that trip and I'm happy they did. It's been nicknamed the 'Miracle at Medinah' after Team Europe battled back from a 10-6 deficit at the start of the final day to overcome their shaky singles reputation to emerge victorious at 14.5-13.5. I always say about the Ryder Cup that its when golf becomes sport. Sure individual sports can have their merits and can be enjoyable to watch, but they never quite match the drama and passion of team sports for me - golf does this once every two years and is far more enjoyable for it. The Europeans had barely turned up on the first three and a half sessions and analysts everywhere were predicting a blow out win for the Americans. But then Mr Ryder Cup Ian Poulter turned things around with some inspired play in the last group on the course as the Saturday play drew in. Some momentum was picked up, but experts were still predicting a clear win by as much as eight points for the Americans. In a remarkable day the scoreboard kept getter bluer and bluer as the points stacked up. In the penultimate pairing, Martin Kaymer had some wayward work on the greens to thank Steve Stricker for as he came home to tie the scores up and ensure the Ryder Cup was retained and Molinari took the final game from Woods for the icing on the cake as the cup was won. The spirit of Seve was lauded as a massive factor in the win, but it was a man on the fairways that truly inspired the win - Ian Poulter, Ryder Cup legend.

October saw the end of a glorious career of another sporting hero. Some say Frankel is the greatest racehorse of all time. The British thoroughbred retired as the highest ranked horse in the world, with a record of 14 wins from 14 starts, 10 group one wins and nearly £3million in prize money. The 2012 Champion Stakes saw Frankel take on some unusually soft ground that put his place in the race in doubt up to the morning of the race. A poor start put Frankel on the back foot early but he fought back to take the race by 1.75 lengths. Horse racing isn't my thing but you have to give credit to this remarkable sporting icon.

October also saw the end of Warrington Wolves' Paul Wood having two testicles. The main storyline coming out of the Leeds Rhinos second consecutive Grand Final victory wasn't Kevin Sinfield's man of the match display, it was the pain defying stint Wood put in with a ruptured testicle in the second half. Despite defeat and losing a ball, Wood took it in good humour, tweeting that he was sure he had left something behind when he left the hospital the following day. His teammates credited him for playing his b*ll*cks off and he became an uncomfortable media must have, with his story reported all over the world.

The rugby league year ended with an emphatic but uninspiring international series which England dominated against the Welsh and the French. It looked like the end of a long season for France's high quality forward pack as they couldn't keep pace with England, and the depleted largely part-time Welsh were never at it. Things looked good for England with them being able to try out a lot of backs combinations and give a number of players their debut, but the competition wasn't really tough enough to give us much indication of the strength of the squad we'll have to take on the Aussies and Kiwis on 2013. A total of 172 points scored over three games suggests the opposition wasn't up to much.

When the autumn series in once code finished, the rugby union autumn internationals started. This England faced a much sterner test playing the best the southern hemisphere has to offer, after a big win against Fiji to start the series. Narrow losses to Australia and South Africa raised questions about the on field decision making of captain Chris Robshaw with choices on when to kick a goal and the time taken to make such decisions being seen as critical to England's defeats. However, the series ended with possibly England's biggest win against a southern hemisphere since the 2003 World Cup final. England defeated New Zealand 38-21 and ended their 20 match losing sequence against the Kiwis in the process. A strong start and a well disciplined almost error free performance helped England get well on top in the first half before a second half try-fest saw New Zealand threaten to power England out of the game, until England put up three tries of their own to record their record winning margin in their seventh triumph over the All Blacks.
 
2012 had one more great sporting achievement in store for British fans. India welcomed England for a four match test series. England hadn't won a series in India for 24 years and things couldn't have started much worse at the end of what had been a dismal year of test cricket. England's abject failure to play spin bowling looked set to continue after the 1st test nine wicket defeat in Ahmedabad. The only bright note was the 176 scored by captain Alistair Cook in the follow on second innings. Changes were made to the bowling line up with Monty Panesar coming in for Tim Bresnan to take 11 wickets in the match. Cook and Kevin Pietersen showed the Indians how to bat on their own wickets, both contributing centuries to a 413 1st innings that gave Panesar and Swann the platfom the work from. A ten wicket victory levelled the series. The 3rd test saw Steve Finn come in for injured Stuart Broad, but Monty and Cook both picked up where they left off in Mumbai to give England a big 1st innings advantage. In the 2nd innings the seamers led from the front, taking three wickets each and restricting India to only a small lead before the batsmen knocked off the runs needed in quick time. England left Kolkata with a 2-1 lead. The fourth test wasn't very exciting. The slow low wicket saw runs scored at only 2.27 runs per over through the whole test. India were able to get Cook, but Pietersen, Joe Root and Matt Prior fought hard to give England a strong starting point. James Anderson bowled his arm off to take four wickets and restrict India to a small 1st innings deficit. Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell batted out over after over to put the match in a position where India couldn't win and the historic 2-1 series victory was sealed with a draw in Nagpur. It was Cook's first series as permanent test captain and he demonstrated his ability to lead from the front and carry his team. During the series he became the highest test run scorer for England in India, the first captain in world cricket to score a century in each of his first five tests in the job, the Englishman with the most test centuries and the youngest batsman to reach 7000 in world cricket. He cemented himself in English cricketing history and made himself the final hero of my 2012 run down. 

What a year for British sport. Forget the bad stuff a few days and remember how great thsi year was. I know one thing I'll be doing this Christmas peiod, I'll be watching the DVD of the Olympics once or twice!