Enjoy it while you can

A crowd of around 500 cheered, and not just because she was wearing white.

'It is a lovely surprise,' she said. 'This has not ruined my day, it has made it. As an Aussie, though, I was supporting the Wallabies in the final.'

The gold embossed card on the easel at the top of the stairs - a Matt Dawson pass away from the England team room - stated that Annie was marrying Leonardo.

DiCaprio? 'No, Furlan, he's better looking.'

Then, looking towards the veranda where a handsome but unassuming young man was eating lunch with a few friends, she added: 'Mind you, he's not bad.'

She was, of course, referring to Jonny Wilkinson, who had earlier been signing shirts and programmes for his adoring public.

A couple of uniformed policemen at the door and some crash barriers formed rather puny protection. But the fans were friendly and respectful, the players not that far along the road of stardom that they feared for their safety, demanded their privacy or believed in their own publicity.

Flanker Richard Hill said: 'I certainly don't feel like a national hero.'

He had turned on his mobile telephone to hear umpteen messages on his voicemail. 'They were from people in bars in England,' he said.

' I couldn't understand what they were saying because of all the shouting in the background. I suppose when we go home we will understand what the reaction has been like.'

If this had been the football World Cup, no member of the public would have got near an England player yesterday.

As it was, they staggered back to the hotel at intervals after a night which no one would begrudge them. There was a feel of 1966 in the informality of it all. Rugby may be almost into its second decade as a professional sport but at least some of the best aspects of a time gone by remain.

The morning had been dry, bright and warm enough to attract some surfers, bathers and beach volleyball nuts. All six courts in front of the England hotel were occupied.

No one bothered Clive Woodward and family as they walked along the sand of a beach he would have known extremely well as a former captain of local club Manly.

' Please shut the door behind you,' the notice on the England team room door declared. But it was ajar most of the time. Not, unfortunately, when Martin Johnson arrived to prove that he was better at opening opposition defences than unlocked doors. Then again, he has spent the past seven weeks pushing.

Will Greenwood was holding court, comparing the London scenes he saw on BBC World with his reaction as a schoolboy to the David Platt goal which defeated Belgium in extra time in the 1990 soccer World Cup.

'I was at boarding school in Sedbergh. We were all crammed round the TV.

Paintings were coming off the wall, chairs were getting smashed up as people were jumping around. And to me that is how I imagine it was back home.'

Greenwood was trying to persuade his audience that he would be training with his club Harlequins on Wednesday when a decision would be made about whether he would play against Leeds at the weekend. 'There might be a breathalyser test,' he said. 'Is it illegal to play under the influence? Does it come under the banned substances?'

You could not get away with speaking like that in soccer. Maybe rugby players will not be able to in the future either.

Enjoy it while you can. The England players and supporters have.