1. Romanian captain, Cristian Petre, who after suffering a 67-3 loss to England,  was asked by a reporter about the game and replied “I play rugby for happiness.”  More.
2. The French rugby team won the toss to choose who wears their own home jerseys in the Rugby World Cup Final and declined to wear their treasured ‘bleu’. Instead they felt it was right for Kiwis, as RWC hosts, should  wear their own colours.   More
3. Young Kerry Gaelic football Tomás Ó’Sé after the final whistle carried the ball as a souvenir to the Dublin goal keeper who kicked the winning point in 2011 All Ireland Gaelic Final. Caught on camera! More.
4. Former Somali refugee, Mohamed Farah, won gold for Britain in the 5,000 metres World Athletic Championships – making his new nation very proud while arch rival, Kenyan, Paul Lagat (representing USA) was the first to embrace him and congratulate him. More.
5. Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni showed honour when he allowed England’s batsman to be reinstated after being ‘run out’ because of a misunderstanding that the game had stopped for tea. More.
6. Vancouver’s Langley Elementary School children displayed true sportsmanship after Ice Hockey riots when they wrote to Boston school children to congratulate the winners, Boston. More.
7. Ex American basket ball pro, ex junkie and now coach, Chris Herren, is a true sportsman as he coaches children and encourages them to always have fun & enjoy their games. More.
8. The Indian & Pakistan cricket fans – arch enemies became friends for life as they shared the excitement & enjoyment of fierce competition as over one billion people watched the match on television.  One man offered to sell his liver … More.
9. 19 year old Japanese golfer, Ryo Ishikawa, donated all this year’s earnings to victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  More.
10. Irish rugby coach, Declan Kidney when asked about the illegal Welsh try that won the game said, that ‘while he felt extremely frustrated, he was not going to make an issue of it at a time when so many in the world were suffering. More.

I will tweet later our all time favourite single moment for 2011. Happy New Year  To One and All.  Say ‘Yes’ to Great Sportsmanship in 2012.

Roger Milla’s samba with the corner flag, Peter Crouch’s Robot Dance or Pele leaping into the arms of other players with the biggest grin,  or this goalkeeper’s extraordinary celebration or,  this fan singing and dancing and inspiring a stadium, or perhaps this 19 year old jockey’s unbridled joy as he wins the 2011 Epson Derby* – what’s your favourite celebration?

Some say that the young French jockey’s celebration was dangerous. But surely it was better than ‘Rooney’s Rage’  style celebrations , that we see on TV screens every week as millionaire footballers release  angry tension with roars and aggressive fists (see why do people celebrate with anger?). Where is the joy gone?

Do players forget the fun, excitement and joy of playing in top class competitions? Research into England’s most recent World Cup flop revealed ‘fear of failure’ as the major factor.

Great players do not fear failure. In fact they have, what sports psychologists call, ‘Failure Tolerance’ – they don’t beat themselves up when they make a mistake. They just get on with it as in the case of Martin Palermo who once missed three penalties in one match for Argentina but never gave up and went to score the goal that put them into the last World Cup.

The  former junkie basketball player now coach highlighted last month seems to have it right. He gets kids to enjoy their game first and foremost. Come to think of it, the world’s most successful football/soccer manager, Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson constantly reminds his players to ‘enjoy themselves’.

So come on, let’s get the joyous celebrations back into sport. Share your favourite celebration here by posting a comment. Tell me about your favourite celebration (in any sport).

Thanks to Paul Bowket for alerting me about the unbridled joy of the young French jockey as he comes from nowhere to win the 2011 Derby (*2 mins 30 seconds). 

Although Thom was invited to the game, it may have been too much for him and he’ll be watching from LA where he is pursuing an acting career. Good luck to Thom and good luck to his bro’ in what could be the most exciting game of this year’s 6 Nations.

Who remembers Scottish hero Andy Irvine’s running the length of the pitch in many a game and John Taylor’s last minute around the corner conversion to destroy Scots hopes way back  in the 70s?  NB the line outs – absolute mayhem!

PS for real rugby junkies that boot that kicked that conversion is on display upstairs in London Welsh RFC.

As for Eng v Italy – Italian Shocker against all the odds? And Ireland France – championship decider – O’Driscoll does it again!

Just one more Irvine try….this time against a powerful French team. Note Irvine’s post try celebration – lie gasping  for air.  “It looks a funny one. But it’s not funny for the Frenchmen!”  from ‘the voice of rugby’ the irreplaceable BBC commentator, the late great Bill McLaren.

During the interview I was moaning about the French footballer, Henri handling the ball (see 3 Wise Men) and demanding a replay in the name of Fair Play (as well as marking the end of the ‘non-video ref era’), when a wonderful Wigan FC fan phoned in (as the programme was originally about the Wigan players giving the fans their money back after Wigan were beaten  9-1 by Spurs). He  admitted that one of their players had, in fact handled the ball also, and that they, as true sportsmen, were offering Spurs the opportunity of a replay. Don’t you just love some football fans’ wit & humour? A wonderful Christmas gesture!

Henry’s former Arsenal team mate, Lee Dixon, believes Henry has ruined his reputation “He has been a truly great footballer – one of the best players we’ve ever seen in the Premier League – but now people will remember him for that goal against Ireland. It’s really sad.”

Come on France all you’ve got to do is ask for a replay.

Sign this petition & send it to all your contacts in Ireland & abroad – The Irish have so many friends all over the world. If they get 10+million signatures, they will have to seriously rethink it. Don’t let this go. www.gopetition.com/online/32214/sign.html#se

Or let FIFA know directly,  www.fifa.com/contact/form.html .

Meanwhile watch out for a lobby campaign for the sponsors.  Kids all over the world have seen cheats win again. FIFA has an opportunity to let kids see that cheating does not prevail and that, courtesy of technology, this is the begininng of the end, of the era where cheats always win. With a nudge from sponsors, FIFA may still take this historic opportunity to get it right.  Watch out for my next post which shows how the Germans have come up with a brilliant solution to reduce cheating.