It rallies us, it riles them, it can only be the fields of Athenry

IT’S often I look in bewilderment at an article in the sports pages with an expression similar to those which Usain Bolt’s competitors convey as the Jamaican sprinter glides past like he’s on rails.

I slowly lay the newspaper onto a cafe table, shake my head and say it again: wow. Martin Samuel is someone who I’ve often watched, with bald admiration, do the same job as I — but on a different level. He’s interrupted my mid-morning coffee many times.

This week his piece had me shaking my head for a new reason however. At the fag end of a 2,500-word column, which revolved around the risible soap operas of John Terry’s armband and Gerard Houllier’s ‘lucky scarf’, Britain’s Sportswriter of the Year spat a few hateful insults over his shoulder as he walked away from the remains of England’s Grand Slam dream.