Most of us woke to our largest newspaper’s front page this morning -
Now, who was it here who said we Aussies were not (a little 
) magnaminous in defeat?
TO ENGLAND AND ITS SPORTS FANS
Regarding your magnificent football team’s 20-17 triumph in the Rugby World Cup final on November 22, on behalf of all Australians, we would like to admit the following:
-
You were not too old (although we hoped you would be when the game went to extra-time).
-
You were not too slow.
-
You scored as many tries as we did.
-
You kicked no more penalty goals than we did.
-
You ran the ball as much as we did.
-
You entertained as much as we did.
-
You did it with one of your own as coach (even though he did spend many formative years playing at Manly, Sydney).
-
You are better singers than we are (and just quietly, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is growing on us, as is Jonny without an “h”).
-
You played with class, toughness and grace.
-
You were bloody superior … and
-
You are, for the first time in 37 years, winners of a football World Cup.
AS A RESULT:
We believe Twickenham is a most fitting home for Bill (a.k.a. W.W. Ellis), though we humbly remind you that, unlike the Ashes, you have to hand it over if you don’t win next time.
We concede the time has come to forgive you for using Australia as a dumping ground for all your poor, weak and defenceless - even if the practice continues unabated every fourth summer.
We’ll stop including the Socceroos’ victory on our boastful list of triumphs over you and concede, upon reflection, that it was only a friendly even though you substituted your entire team at half-time.
We will no longer characterise your fans as beer-swilling, pot-bellied louts or knife-wielding hooligans and try to remember the sporting and enthusiastic supporters who did so much to make the final memorable.
We will stop calling for the IRB to change the scoring system. In fact, if you can guarantee us a final as good as that one again, we’ll ask them to actually increase the value of penalty and drop goals.
P.S. GO THE WALLABIES, who through their magnificent efforts did us all proud on the field and even more so off it, with the magnanimous manner in which they and our fans accepted defeat at the hands of you Pommy bastards (sorry, that one slipped through the editing process 
).
