This column may have been somewhat negative about the future of rugby recently – so how cheering to report a spate of magnificent matches, across both codes and both genders, that provided not only brilliant entertainment but also, as young people like to say these days, ‘learnings’.

The best game of all was the women’s World Cup final at Eden Park, Auckland, when after 80 minutes of spine-tingling rugby union England lost by just three points. Forget any snooty talk you might have heard about women’s rugby. This match had everything: athleticism, a real sense of adventure and far fewer of those interminable caterpillar rucks and reset scrums which clog up the men’s sport. Even the RFU’s chief, Bill Sweeney, agreed: ‘It was a competitive, highly intense sporting event: in many respects probably more entertaining than the men’s game.’ Shame on you if you didn’t rise at dawn to watch it.

Still with union, equally intense but considerably more brutal, with two red cards including one for French skipper Antoine Dupont, was France’s pulsating 30-26 victory over South Africa in Marseille in the Autumn Nations. It was impossible to take your eyes off this nail-biter.

But the most jaw-dropping display of speed, aggression, skill, strength, fitness and guile came in the semi-final of the Rugby League World Cup when Australia, the overwhelming favourites, just held off New Zealand in an epic encounter. At this elite, most competitive level, the game of rugby shows the physical and mental peaks to which human beings can rise. If you don’t enjoy this, team sport is not for you.

But for England’s 15-man side, sterner tests await after last weekend’s mismatch against Japan, not least on Saturday against the All Blacks. So how can Eddie Jones avoid the pitfalls that lie ahead? Well, putting players in their best positions might help. You wouldn’t get a plumber to fit your kitchen, so why on earth do you play the world-class lock Maro Itoje as a flanker? And it’s becoming clearer that starting Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell might need a rethink. For young Smith, it’s a bit like learning to drive with your dad in the back.

Muse on this as football’s World Cup unspools in Qatar over the next few weeks: if Newcastle United qualify for the Champions League (and they will), consider their buying power with all that Saudi money. Northumberland estate agents with a few mansions to sell will be rubbing their hands and bulk-buying Portuguese and Spanish phrase books. The stars of the World Cup – the players that right now only football nerds have heard of – will be heading for Tyneside, and this time, unlike other imports in the past, they will be sticking around.

Huge respect to Channel 4, which slipped in to scoop the T20 cricket final and justify its role as the world’s top guerrilla sports network. And the viewing figures were fantastic too: 3.2 million. Something for the cricket top brass to chew on surely. It was a thrilling game and the Pakistan bowling was the best pace attack since the West Indies of the 1980s, terrifying but brilliant to watch. If you can cope with more cricket, England’s upcoming Test series in Pakistan should be compelling. Let’s hope the crowds turn out there too.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s comeback had bright moments, but his return to Old Trafford was clearly a mistake – and largely down to some gratuitous Alex Ferguson meddling. All in all it has put back Manchester United’s rebuilding: as a cricketing legend once remarked in a more personal capacity, ‘Cold soup never reheats.’

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