The Week in Review: Sport

VICTORY upon victory came to various England teams, but with varying degrees of acclaim. The boot of Rob Andrew took the rugby union XV to an 18-14 victory at Parc des Princes, but no tries meant little praise for a seventh successive win against France.

A day later the cricket XI regained some semblance of respectability by winning the final one-day international, but lost the series 3-2 to the West Indies.

The opening night of the Venables era received rave reviews after a 1-0 win over a less-than-committed Denmark. The critics loved the radical concept of an England football team looking to pass to each other. Irony aplenty with the goal - a long pass out of defence straight from the previous manager's handbook (or Yellow Pages).

Far less fun for another new international manager. John Toshack experimented against Norway but the new Welsh mixture proved somewhat toxic. Well before a late goal closed the gap to 3-1, the Cardiff crowd were calling Terry Yorath's name.

After years of telling cricketers how to perform from the commentary box, Ray Illingworth can now do it from the dressing-room as England's chairman of selectors. South Africa showed Illingworth how to beat Australia: the fractious tourists lost by 197 runs.