ONE of the great ironies of England's long-awaited World Cup triumph may well be that those responsible for it will do their best to avoid the artificial celebrations and synthetic triumphalism awaiting their return.

A knighthood for Clive Woodward would be an appropriate award, following in the footsteps of the equally reticent Alf Ramsey, but I cannot imagine that genuine sportsmen like Martin Johnson and Jonny Wilkinson will really want to have tea with Tony and Cherie Blair at No. 10, or take part in a victory parade through the centre of London.

They will undoubtedly be asked to endorse scores of advertisements, pose with politicians and would-be celebrities, and endure innumerable meaningless interviews with people who know next to nothing about rugby.

They all stand to make a small fortune - Wilkinson alone stands to make up to £5million a year - but though they undoubtedly deserve it, I hope most of the cash generated by the tournament's success will go to help developing rugby nations like Samoa, Fiji, Romania and Argentina, and to encouraging more youngsters to take up the sport in this country. To their credit, the RFU have already announced plans to expand the grassroots game, while local clubs like Waterloo and LSH are moving to run more junior and mini rugby teams.

It would help the whole nation if the Government and the local authorities would change tack, provide better school sports faciliities, and admit that rugby does an enormous amount to encourage good behaviour as well as personal fitness.

You didn't see the fans fighting or abusing each other Down Under, because they have all grown up in a game that insists on sportsmanship, a quality that we badly need to encourage in this country.

Hopefully, there will be plenty of welcome home parties at clubs like Waterloo, who produced two or three of the winning team, and a sharp increase in the number of spectators at club matches.

So far as the winning team are concerned, I imagine most of them will want to play out the coming home internationals in front of a highly appreciative public and they may also want to demonstrate a rather more open style of play than was possible in the intensity of a world championship.

Even they must have been a little disappointed that, with men like Jason Robinson, Will Greenwood and Josh Lewsey in their side, they could still only manage one try apiece against South Africa, Wales and Australia and none at all against France.

Kicking is, of course, all part of the game, but rugby is supposed to be a handling code, and some spectacular running would do a tremendous amount to 'sell' the sport to a wider public.