Time to put aside this pathetic bias

The allegations against Hansen run something like this -- he chucked in a few unwanted players, Shane Williams for example, against New Zealand and it just happened to click, in other words Hansen stumbled across the right formula by accident.

Why didn't Wales perform like they did against the All Blacks and England in earlier pool matches, some people are asking.

Others suggest the players decided to do it their way, to ignore Hansen because they don't particularly get on with him.

I've heard it all over the place and I've even seen it written in a match programme.

Where do these people come from? Where do they get it all from?

All I can say is they've got vivid imaginations because it's absolute nonsense, completely without foundation.

Wales and Hansen had a job to do at the outset and that was to reach the quarter-finals.

They were hardly going to risk throwing the ball about from all angles in that process.

They did, indeed, make the last eight, and that speaks volumes for Hansen and his sheer bloody mindedness in the face of fierce criticism from all quarters, not to mention his job being on the line if he and the team failed.

Once qualification had been achieved expanding the style could be put high on the agenda. And, as Hansen said yesterday, if he had wanted to ignore Shane Williams he had every opportunity because the player was in bed with 'flu all week before the New Zealand game.

And what about the fitness of the players? When has a Welsh team been able to play with such an intensity against the two highest ranked teams in the world?

The answer to that is never. That was nothing to do with Hansen, I suppose.

I guess the head-in-the-sand brigade will now accuse me of being brainwashed for giving Hansen some credit.

Why must people look for hidden agendas which simply aren't there? They seem to thrive on finding fault where none exists. I suggest they simply give credit where credit is due.

As for England's achievement, one Welsh newspaper even went so far as to suggest the Principality was in mourning.

I ask you. Just how puerile is that? What kind of impression does that give about the mentality of Welsh people?

That kind of nonsense is appealing to the mindless morons in our midst, so blinded by bias that they cannot see the wood for the trees.

Of course, it was great England won the World Cup, not as wonderful as if it was Wales, of course, but gratifying nonetheless.

The Southern Hemisphere grip on the World Cup has been broken, it's come to the Northern Hemisphere for the first time and it's good to get one up on the Aussies, All Blacks and Springboks after years in the wilderness.

They have belittled us in this part of the world long enough and they have rubbished the Five Nations and Six Nations. Now they're going to have to take notice and maybe even copy some of our methods. It wasn't just England either. Wales rocked the All Blacks to their foundations, leading after an hour, and Ireland went within inches of beating Australia when David Humphreys edged a dropped goal narrowly wide in the dying moments.

But to resent England winning the World Cup, whether it be via a newspaper headline or from scores of fans or more, is absolutely pathetic.

Their success has done wonders for Northern Hemisphere rugby and has given the Six Nations Championship a far higher profile. There might even be financial spin-offs for all the home nations.

Yes, the English fans in Australia were arrogant. I experienced it at first hand and in some cases it was well nigh insufferable.

But I am one of those who remembers what the Welsh fans were like in the halcyon days of the seventies.

Wales won Triple Crowns and Grand Slams by the bucketful and how the fans loved the annual slaughter of the English. They were as arrogant then as the English are now.

What about the Aussie fans and newspapers who urged them to keep the England team awake at night, to stick pins in effigies of Jonny Wilkinson?

At least those papers have had the good grace to apologise now that England have won the World Cup.

How about the Boers of South Africa, arguably the most overbearing of the lot?

The answer is they're all arrogant, they all become cocky in victory and England are no different from the rest.

We should all offer hearty congratulations to England for what they have achieved, to captain marvel Martin Johnson - what an absolute rock the man is - to kicker extraordinaire Jonny Wilkinson, to the whole lot of them.

A nation mourns, indeed. What an insult to all fair-minded people. How grudging, how insulting. Let's hear no more of it. Instead we should all give England and Hansen the praise they deserve.