ENGLAND'S victorious rugby union players touched down back home today feted to the high-blue heavens for their incredible and inspirational World Cup conquest.

The acclaim being heaped upon their muscular shoulders is richly deserved - England have not topped the world in a collective team unit since Sir Alf Ramsey's sunshine boys of 1966. Parallels with that footballing feat are now being made and some eerily echo that memorable summer of 37 years ago.

Each team was bossed by a single-minded, driven individual - Ramsey in 1966, Clive Woodward today.

Both boasted golden boys - Bobby Moore the talismanic leader of England's footballers, Jonny Wilkinson the metronomic kicker, whose boots are tinged with magic.

And to reach their ultimate goal, the two all-conquering squads battled through plenty of media carping to capture their respective cups in the most drama-dripping fashion imaginable at the end of epic, extra-time encounters.

It will be claimed - with no little justification too - that the 2003 triumph outweighed that of 1966 as it was concluded on foreign turf, albeit the former colony and penal pastures of Australia.

Unlike the mid-60s, Clive Woodward's union corps had to reach their summit without the significant benefit of home advantage, though being on familiar turf did nothing for England when they lost to Australia in Twickenham 12 years ago.

However, the game of rugby union has moved on considerably since then, as has football following the days when the most frequent occasions anyone heard of footballers being in the arms of the law was when they had tangled with feisty Scottish striker supreme Denis Law.

Barely had the build-up begun to this autumn's rugby union World Cup when English football was gate-crashing the headlines for all the wrong reasons - strikes, drunkenness, missed drug tests, allegations of rape.

Football was more akin to Sodom and Gomorra than Southampton and Grimsby. Some heroes are tarnished and totter on feet of clay.

Enter then, the world of rugby union, populated by strapping specimens, who conducted themselves with dignity and decorum and whose behaviour on the field of play was characterised by an unrelenting respect for the referee.

Woodward's warriors arrived in England today bathed in the glow of their attitude as much as their achievement. Besides the clamour of genuinely exultant fans, there was as many flash-bulbs, cameras, tape recorders, not forgetting a battalion of marketing men waiting to hitch their assorted wares to the World Cup winners' bandwagon.

It's unlikely that the victors will be forgotten in terms of commercial reward as were their football predecessors of 1966. But the union game would do wise to heed the events post-1966 as it prepares to deal with the anticipated hike in interest in its own sport.

Football then enjoyed a massive upsurge on the back of the World Cup conquest. But for all the money that spewed into the game then, there was precious little reciprocal investment in improving the lot of the supporters streaming through the turnstiles.

But as an era dawned where ardent football followers were increasingly treated like so much fodder or cattle, the 'beautiful game' turned ugly and sour and became infected with an excess of violence that manifested itself into tribal warfare.

True, the fan-base of rugby union - rugby league too - has none of that hooligan element.

But while rightly lauding the players, and trying to capitalise on the groundswell of support at the ground-roots, ruling powers should not allow the expected renaissance to turn into this year's fad. Too many prawn sandwiches would bring on only severe indigestion.

Updated: 10:56 Tuesday, November 25, 2003