A lot has been said and written about England's record home defeat to New Zealand at the weekend, but precious little has been said about the performance of Newcastle Falcon centre Jamie Noon.
This time last year Noon was being ridiculed by some experts who questioned his right to a place in the side probably because they met the cousin of another centre playing for a southern club at an old school friend's wedding!
Those experts should be wiping the egg off their face this week after the former target of their mockery proved to be one of the only players who could live with the mighty All Blacks on Sunday.
The former Northumbria University student scored one try and had a perfectly good one ruled out by a blundering French referee who failed to give a try even though the Kiwis were so sure it was a try that they had lined up to prepare for the conversion (which would probably have been missed by Charlie Hodgson.)
Given Noon's excellent form for the Falcons this season he should be a certainty to play in next summer's World Cup and could well be joined in the backs by club mates Toby Flood and Matthew Tait.
Of course, that might not be such a blessing as the reigning World champions look as though they have about as much chance of winning the World Cup as I have of being called up to bolster the scrum against Argentina next weekend.
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