Bulldog Vickery will not look back in anger

Deary me. New Zealand might just be the only place where you'd get away with the grossness of comparing the aftermath of a game of rugby to the horrors of the Great War but at least on the same night, another less theatrical front row veteran had already given a proper perspective to sporting combat.

"In this game, win or lose, you've got to enjoy the moment because if you don't, you become a very dreary old man," said Phil Vickery as he reflected on steering England into the last four.

"We're going to the semis, where we're going to be underdogs again but let's go out, look forward to it and enjoy it. Instead of being weary and down about things, let's savour it and play the game with a bit of a smile on our faces."

Of course, a Raging Bull with "I will fight you to the death" tattooed in oriental script on his shoulder hasn't gone all mad cow; it's just that Vickery has endured enough trauma to understand why every epic Saturday wearing the red rose must be cherished.

After the Aussie game, Trevor Woodman, Vickery's fellow World Cup-winning prop texted him: "Looked like you were near to tears on telly mate - you've got to stop cos it's making me reach for the Kleenex".

Vickery smiled but it made him reflect poignantly how "good old Trev", now living in Sydney, had quit through injuries brought on by their brutal trade. It could so easily have been him, too, after three career-saving operations on his spine.

"You know, I've never bothered watching a re-run of our World Cup win in 2003," he said. "I'll have a look back one day but I've always thought that when you start looking back at things like that, it's sort of signalling that it's the end for you. But I don't want it to be over. I want to go on and still achieve."

He won't live in the past. At 31 and back to near his bullocking best, why waste time thinking of two years ago when he couldn't even lift his baby daughter because of the killing pain from his back?

Or when he survived on four daily doses of morphine? Or when surgeons said it was 50-50 whether he'd ever play again?

Come to that, why now feel any bitterness about the stick he'd taken just this past month after his tripping of an American opponent saw him banned for two games, dubbed as irresponsible and then dropped for the Tonga match?

Or about the widespsread idea that he hadn't been missed with Martin Corry a capable stand-in captain and Matt Stevens a better stand-in tighthead?

"It has been disappointing. People have tried to make a big thing of the captaincy and me and Martin but there's no animosity or issues between us," he added. "You won't find a better bloke than Martin Corry. Matty Stevens? He's done fantastically well and will go on to be one of the best props in world rugby but I'm not lying down yet.

"I think sometimes you don't appreciate we do try bloody hard to get things right and when they don't it's as frustrating for us as it is for you."

As he left the ground with the whole of Marseille agog in preparation for the All Blacks-France game, I asked Vickery where he'd be watching it live. "Nah, probably won't bother. Don't usually. We're in the bag," he shrugged. Ribs and chips awaited.

Nobody could have made a game of rugby sound so unimportant and yet a couple of hours earlier he had made it look like it meant the whole world. Whether snorting or smiling, it is good to have him back.