What a week of great sport we have just experienced, with success after success for Scotland, England, and Ireland – both for teams and individuals.

Ireland’s defeat of Australia showed just what a rugby force the men in green have become. On current form they really do look like potential World Cup winners.

I can’t quite say that about Scotland’s rugby team just yet but there was a lot to like about their carving up of Argentina for a record win, and they did it by playing adventurous stuff that was a joy to watch.

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Yes I know it was an under-strength Pumas XV, but Scotland were missing some of their best players too. All credit to Gregor Townsend and his men for bouncing back from that poor display against the US.

It’s great to see Andy Murray back and winning, and even if he doesn’t make Wimbledon at least he has shown he can compete again.

For me the individual performance of the week was the brilliant win of Josh Taylor over Viktor Postol in Glasgow on Saturday. Postol showed why he had been a feared world champion but Taylor outboxed him and thoroughly deserved the victory and the shot at the world title he will now get.

Which brings me to England and the most unlikely declaration of my life – that I really want England to go all the way in Russia and win the World Cup. Yes you read that correctly, but let me explain.

It was a fabulous, nay unprecedented weekend to be an English sports fan. The England XV’s win over South Africa came too late to save the three-match series but it brought self-respect back for Eddie Jones and his men. The extraordinary whitewash win by England’s cricketers over Australia was achieved in astonishing never-say-die fashion by a team who, don’t forget, lost to Scotland just over a fortnight ago.

Golfer Matt Wallace won the BMW International playing some incredible stuff. He is finally coming good and will win a Major some time soon.

Lewis Hamilton kept his cool to win the French Grand Prix just a couple of hours after England thrashed Panama 6-1 at the World Cup. It was his statements after his win that helped me reach my momentous conclusion about wanting England to win the Cup.

Hamilton said: “It’s a great day for England. Everyone was watching and when l left the garage l saw it was 6-0 and l was like ‘That is fricking awesome’. I don’t know how England would be able to take it though if we did win the World Cup. It’s been such a long, long time.”

Then came the killer line: “It’s a great day for the UK and I hope that I’ve contributed in a positive way to that.”

Now I know England have a long way to go and deep down I still think Germany will triumph, though clearly they must improve massively on what they have shown so far, but this is the most open World Cup in years and England are nailed on to make the quarter-finals at least.

The key to their progress is that manager Gareth Southgate changed the formation and made a clinching decision in making Harry Kane captain, but what has genuinely pleased me is that the young English stars have stepped up to the mark and are playing fine football, with even the much-criticised Raheem Sterling showing some nice touches against Panama. Tomorrow’s match against Belgium will show if England really are contenders, not least because the Belgians have looked pretty special themselves, but I am hopeful that England can improve again.

After that they could go all the way, and I hope they do.

Why? Well Lewis Hamilton and all the English pundits and the mainstream media have shown time and time again what they really think – that England is the UK. So do their fans, why else would so many of them still wave Union Jacks rather than the St George’s Cross?

I really do want England to win for the sake of my English friends, but I also want them to win because I am certain that the reaction will be so completely over the top that no self-respecting Scot will be able to endure it.

The best line about England’s chances in Russia came from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who said “Maybe if they win we can stop talking about 1966.”

Believe me Nicola, if England do win then we will see the biggest outpouring of English supremacist nonsense since 1966, and in fact it will be way, way more than that, because England and Englishness has changed. As Brexit and recent events in Westminster showed, Englanders are not so little any more – they want to run everything.

Winning the World Cup will only increase the English fervour to take charge of their own future and yes, make the case for English independence. And let’s face it, that would be no bad thing for Scottish independence.