THERE was no mistaking the joy, excitement and sheer national pride emanating en masse from 750,000 supporters who turned up to watch England’s rugby heroes in London yesterday.
It was clear from the reluctant smiles on the faces of the capital’s famously irascible taxi drivers - faced with their worst nightmare as a city centre full of potentially laden Christmas shoppers ground to a standstill - that something wonderful wa
s being celebrated.
But amid the sea of red and white, the heady flag-waving, the deafening cheers, whistles and klaxons, there was definitely something else going on - and it wasn’t just sighs of relief from the Scots and the Welsh as they realised that, finally, this was the last day for a while they would be forced to endure English rugby players on telly every hour.
This wasn’t just a victory parade. This was pay-back time - the flipside of a nation’s pent-up frustration at decades of sporting under-achievement.
It was palpable all along the two-mile route, from the hordes gathered at Marble Arch, to the 20-deep throngs along Oxford Street and down Regent Street, right up to those who had gathered at dawn in Trafalgar Square. Parents had allowed their children off school for the historic occasion, this business of beating everyone else in the world at something.
Many of those who had come to cheer on a freezing December Monday had not even seen the game, let alone understood it. They were not about to become converts either. But it didn’t matter. They were jubilant because, for the next four years, they could say that, at rugby at least, England are the best in the world. A sobering thought, to some.
"It’s brilliant, fantastic," shouted Sandra Hurst, 28, as she struggled to be heard over the whistles and horns around us.
"No, I’m not really a fan, but I wanted to be here. It’s awesome that we actually won something. It doesn’t happen that often."
As if to echo the sentiment, a voice then bellowed out from the loudspeaker: "How many Australians are here?" before being drowned out by three-quarters of a million boos.
Even those atop the victory buses, the champions themselves, appeared slightly stunned by their effect on the country.
A few of the 31-strong squad videoed the crowds for posterity, or spoke excitedly into their mobile phones, describing the scene to friends and relatives.
They knew they had won. They were there when it happened. They even had the Webb Ellis Trophy to prove it and had brought it along, in case anyone was in any doubt.
But they hadn’t reckoned on the effect that it would have on a public used to being "plucky British losers".
Martin Johnson, the England captain, almost lost for words, described the scenes before him as mind-blowing.
He said: "This is absolutely unbelievable. It’s been incredible. All the players are overwhelmed. I don’t know what to say at the moment."
Drop-kick hero Jonny Wilkinson said being on the bus was one of the greatest moments of his life.
The veteran flanker Richard Hill agreed: "It’s fantastic. The welcome at Heathrow Airport was amazing, but this has absolutely surpassed it."
In the crowd gathered at Trafalgar Square, women in impeccable make-up pushed their way though, craning their necks for a glimpse of their favourite players, while children were hoisted on to the shoulders of their parents. Every tree, lamp-post, railing, post-box and traffic light appeared to have been scaled, and there were even a few hardy supporters knee-deep in the water of the fountains. Shady-looking street vendors offered polyester victory flags for a fiver.
Just after 1pm, the strains of Swing Low Sweet Chariot could be heard from across the square and a massive cheer went up from the crowd. It was a false alarm, the team were slightly late, but no-one seemed to mind.
Jonathan Woods, 27, from Cambridge, had taken the day off from his job in sales and marketing to travel to London for the day.
"It’s just fantastic," said Mr Woods, a keen sports fan. "We haven’t had a lot to celebrate in sporting terms for a while and they should be rewarded."
There was another cheer, something to do with a replay of Jason Robinson and Wilkinson in the final at Sydney’s Telstra Stadium on a giant screen displayed in the square.
Everyone seemed so - happy.
Many supporters were pleased their team was meeting the Queen, but a few accused Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, of jumping on the bandwagon by inviting the players to Downing Street.
"He’s trying to gain popularity by having it, but he shouldn’t - it is their day," said Sarah Robertson, 18, a student from Newcastle upon Tyne.
Michael Howard, the Tory leader, was later to attend, after Mr Blair had been accused of hijacking the event as a Labour Party stunt.
At 1:15pm, a massive cheer and hundreds of small flashlights from cameras held aloft announced that the team had arrived, accompanied by an escort of police horses, and there was another round of Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, honoured the entire squad with the Freedom of the City of London, and there was a quick round of some song/chant which went: "Oh Jonny Jonny, Jonny Jonny Jonny Wilkinson", before more deafening cheers.
With the team ensconced in the square, there was no escape. Trying to move out was impossible, as one tweed-clad old lady caught up in the immobile throng was finding to her cost. There was nothing to do but soak up the atmosphere.
Twenty minutes later, it was all over. The players headed off for tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace and the controversial reception with the Prime Minister.
The crowds began dispersing, back to the offices, shops and railway stations whence they came.
The sign that it truly was over came with a cry from the street vendors. "Get your flags for two quid. Come on now, everything must go."
Oh well, only another four years to go ...
Perfect conversion: Victory turns into book salesSCOTTISH publisher Mainstream is set to cash in on the England win.
Sweet Chariot - The Complete Book of the Rugby World Cup 2003 reached bookshops barely a week after the 22 November final, and is already in its second printing.
Edited by Ian Robertson, the former Sottish international fly-half, now the BBC’s rugby correspondent, it includes 19 pages of colour photographs on England’s 20-17 victory over Australia, and accounts of earlier games in the pools, quarter-finals and semis.
It is billed as the "perfect souvenir", capturing the euphoria, despair and drama of the World Cup.
The England victory has fed a sales surge in anything and everything associated with the winning team. One fan paid £500,000 for Dorian West’s England World Cup final shirt, signed by all the players. But the book will also see some fierce competition this Christmas - not least from Team England Rugby: World Cup 2003, the team’s official account of the World Cup, and at least two DVDs offering the championship’s best moments.
Books also on sale include captain Martin Johnson’s autobiography, and Nine Lives, the life story of Matt Dawson, the scrum-half.
Jonny Wilkinson’s Lions and Falcons, about the 2001 British Lions tour, has been reprinted in paperback. Flanker Neil Back’s book, My Rugby Life, is expected to get a new lease of life, while Jason Robinson and Jason Leonard are set to see increased sales of their books.
Mainstream Publishing’s director, Bill Campbell, said about 50,000 have been printed so far.
"We were doing the book anyway, whether England had won or not. It became obvious where the emphasis should go as we went along. It was sheer inspiration to call it Sweet Chariot, which if you look at the victory celebrations is what their bus is called," he said.
"You couldn’t ask for a more highly visible advert."
Mr Campbell acknowledged there were several competing titles, but he said: "Ours is the all singing, all dancing: it looks a much more attractive package. It is a real souvenir of the World Cup."
The book includes an account of the Australia-Scotland quarter-finals. "Crash, bang, wallop signalled the end of Scotland’s World Cup campaign," reads the article by the BBC rugby reporter, Jill Douglas.
Copies are being shipped to Australia as well as round England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Mr Campbell added. Mainstream has published rapid turn-around books on rugby before, including the official book of the Lions’ tour to Australia in 2001, also Giants of Scottish Rugby, by Jeff Connor, and other works on Welsh and Scottish rugby.
The speed was all a matter of planning, he said. "We were ready to print all but the last couple of sections a few days before the final. It was newspaper deadlines; we got the copy through, chose the final cover and chose the final title."
The book’s cover, inevitably, shows Jonny Wilkinson’s kick.
"I knew we would do well, but the sheer scale of the orders which are continuing to come in is massive.
"If it carries on at this rate, there is no ceiling. We expect it to have a life after Christmas and through the Six Nations."
TIM CORNWELL
