Hatton, England's woes, and the day Martin O Neill Looked at me!!!!!

From the moment Hatton entered the ring wearing his fat suit (I wish he would have used the Rocky 3 theme "Getting Stronger" as his entrance music though, instead of Hi Ho Ricky Hatton...........), accompanied by the Gallagher brothers (Who I have to say looked about as happy as a man who has just has his moustache stolen), you got the feeling this was a new and improved Ricky who had banished the demons of his loss to Mayweather Jnr at the same venue, and all the pre fight talk about him being in the shape of his life was not an exaggeration.

Although I would like to point out that Liam Gallagher, a man who is famous for getting into fights........and then getting beaten up, did look like he wanted to fight Malignanni by himself (and I bet you the MGM would have been full if that fight was on the cards!) the way he was squaring up to the New Yorker, and I wish he would have, as I would pay good money to see Liam getting punched in that annoying smarmy mouth of his.

Anyway, as soon as the fight started, you could see Ricky was not only controlling it, but by the way that Malignanni reacted he had clearly not been hit that hard before, and with his brittle right hand (which he has broken about 4,207 times, including in the build up to this fight) pretty much a non entity, leaving him with a jab about as powerful as a moth, "The Hitman" gave a master class in boxing, and it was great to see him re-establish himself as one of the best and most exciting boxers in the world, as well as one of the most humble and lovely blokes around.

His next fight will hopefully be against Manny Pacquiao, one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, and rumours are this time it could be at Wembley, a venue that would allow more of Hatton's fans to travel in the financial climax, and I for one can't wait!

Okay, that's the good stuff out of the way, now for possibly the most depressing game of rugby I have ever seen, even more so than our drubbing by the same opposition in the group stages of the most recent World Cup. Honestly, on Saturday afternoon Martin Johnsons England side lined up against the World Champions at Twickenham, in a game where we were all hoping our young talented side would step up to the plate and show us what they could do......................................oh dear.

Honestly, I can't tell you how badly the England side played against the South Africans, in every facet of the game we were second best, and the most depressing thing for me, was the passion, or lack of it on display.

Think back a year, when we were narrowly beaten by the Saffers in that World Cup Final 15-6, sure they had much more talent than us, but our boys put everything into that performance, and you could not have questioned their passion or commitment one bit, it was simply that on the day, there is only so much that determination can achieve against a better side but every one I know was incredibly proud of the effort the boys put in.

You could not say the same about the 22 players involved on Saturday, there was no aggression in the contact area, all the ball the backs did receive was incredibly slow as our forwards were second best on the deck, and then when the ball did get out to the backs, they looked about as confident or as talented as a bunch of lemmings (actually, that's an insult to lemmings, sorry my furry suicidal friends!).

I was distraught, no, that's the wrong word, LIVID by the lack of aggression and pride on display, and just about everything was awful, from Danny Care deciding that he wanted to run 5 yards with every ball instead of just passing it, to Cipriani's woeful distribution when we DID have a gap, and.........well I know I sound like a stuck record, but the tackling was like watching a bunch of 5 year old girls scouts trying to catch some grizzly bears.

All the pride associated with wearing the England shirt seemed to be lost on Sat, and we are the laughing stock of world rugby. Some are saying it's because we simply don't have a great team at the moment, lacking in world class players, others are saying that tactically we got it wrong, but forget all that, because you can still be beaten and yet take pride in giving 100%. What the England side did on Saturday was worst than all of that, they let themselves and the nation down.

Honestly, I have always said in my playing career, that okay, I am not the most skilful player, but one thing for sure was that I would prefer to break my leg than miss a tackle and let my teammates down, because I take pride in everything I do, but Cipriani just didn't look like he wanted to tackle on Sat, and I am mightily relieved this morning that one of the most talented players we have ever produced has been dropped (I never thought I would say THAT!), because there is no way you can play like that for your country and keep your place, what kind of message would it send out to the others in the team or on the fringes?

Also, what has happened to our fitness? When Woodward was in charge, we prided ourselves on our conditioning being the best in the world, but the players looked like asthmatic sloths on Saturday, and when you see how fit and strong the Southern Hemisphere sides are now, there is clearly something missing, maybe our players need to stop hanging out with models and going to trendy nightclubs, and spend more time in the gym, remembering what they actually get paid for?

As for Cipriani's tackling.............at times it looked like he didn't want to be there, which is atrocious, and I just wish Johnny was fit, as not only is he the consummate professional, he is probably the hardest tacking 10 in the world, and never came of the pitch not having given 100%.

So, moan over, what can Johnson do to turn things around? Well the ONE person I would want as Coach of that team at this moment is Martin, as here is a man who always gave 100%, wore his heart on his sleeve and knows that's what playing for your country is about above all else.

He will take the players and put a rocket so far up their arse (especially the lacklustre forwards) that they will be choking on it for the next 3 months. He will re iterate the basics, get the team focussed on playing together, and try and rebuild some sort of confidence in the squad before we play the Kiwi's on Saturday.

Will it work in time? Hell no, we will get destroyed by the All Blacks on Sat if we play in a similar vein to the last two weeks, and even if we play to our best, the chances are that we will still lose, but I for one am looking to the team to simply restore a bit of pride, and no matter what the result, I want to get that feeling back where I am proud to call myself an England supporter.

Enough about that debacle, and onto more pleasant things! This week I once again attended the pre game press conference at Bodymoor Heath as Martin O'Neill's Villa prepared to welcome Man Utd to Villa Park.

This week was different though, because I actually knew how things worked and wasn't just wondering around thinking how lucky I was to be there, and I even managed to break my journalistic duck and put a couple of questions to MON and Curtis Davies. Curtis was a top guy, funny, intelligent and to be honest, struck you as the kind of bloke if you met in a pub you would immediately connect, and he gave a great answer to my questions about what's it like to have your back to goal, 18 yards out, with Rooney in front of you with the ball at his feet?

A shortened version of his answer being "Well in that situation he would normally do two things, pull the trigger or try and make you look foolish and my job is to make sure none of those things happen!".

But my finest moment came when all the other radio stations had finished quizzing Martin over his team sheet, and I tentatively put my question to him about how he got the balance right between encouraging his players to play their natural game against a team like Man Utd with the need to curb their attacking instincts enough to nullify the oppo's star players (I hadn't planned any questions before hand, as I feel that its more natural that way).

Then the unthinkable happened, Martin O'Neill looked at me!!!!! Now this may sound like I am some crazy nutter with a crush on him, and trust me that is not true...........honest, but it is because Martin is known as a man that doesn't normally look at the person interviewing him......ever. Not only did I get to gaze in to the great man's eyes (okay, that does make me sound like a crazed stalker!) but he then said, "You have just summed up tomorrows game perfectly!" and went on to answer the question in full while keeping eye contact!

I actually got tingles down my spine, this was one of the greatest managers in the game, actually not only answering my question, but being suitably impressed (remember I am not a journo, as much as I blag I am, just someone who loves sport) by a bloke sporting a dodgy ginger handlebar Tash and hair that would be more commonplace at a Slayer concert.

I can't tell you what a buzz I got from this, and even managed to think up a couple of more questions for MON, who answered them all in his intelligent witty way. I was made up, I headed back to Kerrang towers to announce to all and Sundry, that I was now a "Proper" sports Journo, and that I would be signing photos from 4pm on Sunday..........obviously no one paid me any bother, but I still am walking around with a spring in my step.

Only two things worry me now, one, why was MON wearing black socks with Flip Flops (I kid you not), and two...........having made such an impact, what the hell do I ask him next week!

Any suggestions feel free to send them to me, because all I have so far for the great man is:

"Martin, what's your confectionary biscuit snack of choice? Custard creams or bourbons?"

Doh!