APPARENTLY it's a measure of the Irish nation's post-colonial maturity whether or not its citizens support England in the World Cup. It's debated on the airwaves ad nauseum every time a major championship comes around . . . the ears of Joe Duffy and those Newstalk students must be raw at this stage . . . so here's a call for common sense to prevail. May the best team win and if that team happens to be England, well that'd be fantasti. . . nope, can't do it.

Why on earth should I support a team with Peter Crouch and Rio Ferdinand in it? To misquote Roy Keane, I'm not even English. It's not fair, you can't make me.

So, how has your World Cup been? It may depend on whether or not you've been coaxed into feeling part of Svenie's army. It may depend on whether the wind in your sails these days is trapped or free-flowing. But what it undoubtedly depends on is who you're sharing it all with.

RTE's flag has been waved on these pages many times before, and rightly so.

Graeme Souness has been a fine signing, adding bite to a settled line-up, and it's particularly charming to notice that the Scot doths his cap to no man except John Giles, the daddy. And, as the backin-form Apres Match guys have noticed, everybody loves Graeme, the rebel.

The debate chaired expertly by Bill O'Herlihy on Wednesday night about the merits of Riquelme's contribution to Argentina's performance was television gold. Giles thought he was a good player, not a great player while Liam Brady, backed up by Souness, maintained the new New Maradona was "a class act", comparing him to Michel Platini (what a crying shame Eamon Dunphy was missing for the night, presumably tired and emotional after calling it a day at Newstalk).

There was just the right amount of crackle in the atmosphere to suggest that this was an issue worthy of weighty discussion until Brady finally gave in and admitted that Giles had higher standards. Giles was asked who at this World Cup would he class as world class. "Nobody, " he said, "maybe Rooney".

On Friday evening, a bubbly Dunphy was back and in rare form. Bill introduced The England Bit towards the end of the show and Giles said he didn't care if they ended their 40 years of hurt or not. Dunphy chuckled and said he really did care and suggested that little Johnny was telling fibs. And they both chuckled, like two little lads in the playground. What a pair of aces.

The BBC, meanwhile, have finally organised that direct feed from Montrose. In World Cup Match of the Day on Wednesday night, after the otherwise impressive Adrian Chiles stopped his fawning over Leonardo's good looks (pah, if you've managed to stop staring at the byline picture over there and got this far, well done), the Brazilian and Martin O'Neill had the Riquelme discussion. But where RTE's effort had meat, the Beeb's was watery and you got the impression that the panellists had agreed precisely what they were going to say before going in front of the camera.

We haven't watched much of ITV's coverage . . . it's like, ohmigod, so bad . . .

but we are rather taken with their graphics depicting a player's contribution to a match, just like you might show how a batsman scored his century, with red and green arrows flying hither and tither. Other than that, their coverage is inane and was only worth considering if they happened to choose a more appealing match than RTE.

Speaking of which, fair dues to Brady for criticising his own channel's choice of match the night before the final Group F games (and credit too to RTE for realising the mistake by switching from the Brazil-Japan game to Australia v Croatia with 20 minutes left. ) Can you imagine Ian Wright or Terry Venables taking their paymasters to task over their choice of match?

Ok, maybe that's a bit too much Britbashing for a mature broadsheet newspaper for now. Or maybe not. . . did you see BBC News 24's World Cup Sportsday on Thursday? Well, apparently the England players are feeling a bit homesick up in the drumlins of their Baden Baden camp and asked the BBC to compile a few bits and bobs from the fans at home. Some of the show was really quite sweet . . . painted houses and poodles, little kids with big dreams, holy men giving their blessing . . . and then there was the rest. Timmy 'Knuckles' Henman, Paula Radcliffe and the Brummie Boys on tour in their boozemobile. All the while, supporters' text messages were running along the bottom of the screen. Bill from Cheshire had this to say: "Come on lads, I can see it now. . . Sir David, Sir Theo, Sir Steven, Sir Ashley, Sir Rio. . ."

So when we switch over after the Munster final this afternoon to find that Ecuador are beating our dearest neighbours in Stuttgart, we're gonna party like it's 1988. You might say that's very immature. To which I say: 'La la la la la. Not listening. La la la la la. . .'