What a weekend for a sports fanatic! In the six nations rugby there were excellent matches at Twickenham, where the Welsh form team deservedly won 19-12 and took the Triple Crown but an encouraging performance from the young English team (that might still have drawn the match in the closing minutes) showed that it has a bright future, and at Murrayfield, where only Scottish distraction and a handful of mistakes condemned Scotland to a 23-17 defeat against a fitful French team. And then there was the football. Not just Ryan Giggs marking his 900th appearance for Manchester United by scoring a winning goal against Norwich in the 90th minute, nor Arsenal coming back from 2-nil down to beat Tottenham Hotspur 5-2, but a wonderful Carling Cup final at Wembley in which Liverpool won their first silverware since 2006 after extra time and a penalty shoot-out against Cardiff City, with the latter keeping their hopes alive with an equalising goal three minutes from the end of extra time. It all came down to a penalty shoot-out that began and ended with a Gerrard miss: Steven Gerrard missed Liverpool’s first penalty and his cousin, Anthony Gerrard, missed Cardiff City’s last. Stevie G’s first act afterwards was not joyful celebration but to run across the pitch to console his cousin (picture). A scriptwriter could not have made up a better nor more touching finish to a rich weekend of great sport.