No Premier League action this weekend but some observations and the occasional insight into the weekend's sporting action.......

- The definition of inevitable in the dictionary is as follows: "unable to be avoided, evaded or escaped; certain; necessary". It may as well read: "the result of an England-Australia rugby league match". My rugby league chums who told me "England really have a chance this time around" were either lying or deluded (let's be benevolent and go with deluded). Apparently it was close with seventeen minutes to go before Australia scored....errmm.....six tries.

- It's a shame rugby league is only played seriously by three countries as I suspect if it was a global sport Darren Lockyer would be a true worldwide star.

- I don't really get what people expect of the England rugby union team. If they don't win by thirty points while scoring an array of breath-taking tries, somebody somewhere (probably wearing a Barbour jacket) is viscerally angry. In fact no, scrap that. Lots of people everywhere become viscerally angry. Are England playing very well right now? No. That much is obvious. But that's still a pretty useful Argentinean team that pitched-up at Twickenham. A match, incidentally, played in atrocious conditions. Where was the Argentinean "flair"? Nowhere. But that's OK apparently because they’re a gritty bunch. And much was made of the 3-4 Argentinean first-teamers who didn't play. What of the 9-10 England first-teamers who are currently injured (which arguably includes the starting front-row, back-row and centre combination)? Barely got a mention. A tight defeat against a promising Australian side who've been together for two months followed by a win. All this with a reserve XV. Hardly feels like panic stations to me. England have just played in back-to-back world cup finals haven't they? I'm not saying England are playing well. I'm not saying Martin Johnson is necessarily the man for that job. But some things in sport provoke a disproportionately negative response. Dodgy performances from the England rugby union team is one. England cricket batting collapses is another. It will remain a mystery to me why these over-reactions occur.

- So I've been sucked into watching the X-Factor and I'm annoyed that Danyl Johnson (probably the best singer in the competition) has been labelled as too "arrogant" to win. Poor lad has had a crisis of confidence and now has to come over all humble to try and endear himself to the judges and public. Me? I like a bit of arrogance. There are too many "aww shucks" overly earnest people in show-business and sport. Give me a dose of Liam Gallagher and John McEnroe any day. And this is why I'm a big fan of Lewis Hamilton and Andy Murray. They couldn't case less how the media scores their press conferences, they just want to win. We generally lack arrogance in British sport as there's too much pressure to be nice. It's how David Beckham morphed from being a very good footballer into a over-exposed, "say the right thing" parody of himself. Show me a great sportsman and I'll generally show you someone who is "arrogant". Pele, Maradona, Zidane, Ronaldo (either of them), McEnroe, Connors, Shane Warne, Viv Richards, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali……I could be here all day. Yes there are exceptions: Bjorg, Edberg...errmm....OK Swedish tennis players seem quite humble. But give me the Cantona, collar-up, peacock strut any day over the Tim Henman “I just needed to execute better" press conference. It's just more interesting.

- Loots Bosman strikes one mean cricket ball.

- What is Saj Mahmood doing in the England squad?

- Does anybody care about international friendlies? The mere description is an enigma in modern sport. A "friendly"? What’s that about? Ask Robin van Persie or Arsene Wenger what they think of international “friendlies” right now? Aside from needless injuries to important players, another pitfall of your modern international friendly is that the written press feel obliged to over-analyse the action. Wes Brown makes a mistake against Brazil so apparently now he's "not up to the task of international football". This is the same Wes Brown who played centre-back in both the quarter-final and semi-final of the 2007-08 Champions League. Four matches against Roma and (ahem) Barcelona. Zero goals conceded. Oh, he switched to right-back for the final and walked away with a winner’s medal. Outstanding performances across 480 minutes of elite football against three of the best sides in Europe. Forget all that thought, he makes a mistake in a meaningless game somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the Gulf and it's all over for him. At least he didn't rupture ankle ligaments I guess.....

- Did anybody else have issues with ITV's team that covered the non-event that was Brazil vs England? Steve Ryder presenting (about 10-years past his sell-by date) working with a panel of Andy Townsend (useless), Marcel Desailly (unintelligible) and Ian Wright (4/10 on a good day). As if I needed another reason not to watch that game.....

- I'm not a massive boxing fan but even I would consider staying up until 2am to watch Manny Pacquiao fight Floyd Mayweather. Make it happen somebody.

- Looks like that dodgy seeding fix is working out just nicely for FIFA. Russia, France and Portugal all look good to qualify for next summer's World Cup after the first leg of their respective play-offs. Of those three, the team I'd be most worried about facing as an English fan? Russia. Without a shadow of a doubt. France and Portugal are much-ado-about-nothing these days and it's no surprise to me that they limped through their groups in second place.

- Smart man that Jenson Button talking to McLaren. Let's be honest, nobody knows whether the Brawn car will be competitive or not next year. Would you fall off your chair if they were back towards the rear of the grid? Nor would I. So our Jenson is seriously considering joining one of the best teams year-in, year-out in F1. This tells me that despite his amazing year (unemployed to world champion in nine short months) he's thinking clearly or being very well advised......or both.

- Way back in August in my "Premier League Predictions" I suggested that Everton duo James Vaughan and Jack Rodwell “are two of the brightest young prospects in the Premier League". Press chat this weekend suggests both Chelsea and Man Utd are looking to bid £20m for Rodwell. Hmmm.....

- The curious case of Carlos Tevez. One minute he's moaning about Sir Alex Ferguson. Then he wants out of Man Utd. Then he's moaning about Man Utd fans. Then he's moaning about Diego Maradona not picking him. Then he's slagging off former team-mates. The he tells us all Wayne Rooney is better than Ronaldo and Messi. Then he reveals he “saw corpses in the street as a child”. Now he says he might retire next year because he's "tired of football". No Carlos, we're tired of you harping on in the press about your moan du jour. Do us all a favour by belting-up and getting on and playing some football.

- So Carlo Cudicini has a crash. The woman and child in the car he hits both walk away uninjured. The most important word of that sentence being "car". Carlo is on a motor-bike and is currently having his wrists and pelvis pieced back together in a London hospital. Two points: (i) why do people ride motor-bikes? and (ii) I'm amazed (staggered) professional football clubs let their contracted players ride motor-bikes.

- Roy Hodgson includes "The Magus" and "Birdsong" among his favourite books. You see, the prime reason England produces no high quality managers these days is because our game is almost too working class. You can count the number of Englishman who know their football AND have the intellectual capacity to make great managers on the fingers of.....errmm.....maybe one finger. Roy Hodgson......

- So George Burley is for the chop. I’ll reserve judgement on whether the SFA are making the right decision until I see who the replacement is. Given the players Burley had to work with, I think he did a creditable job in the World Cup qualifying campaign. He knows the ropes now, knows the players and I think should have been kept on. Change for change’s sake rarely works out.

- Is Michelle Wie only 20-years old?