Sport and Restoration of Faith

Even if you love sport sometimes you have to wonder about it and those who make a living from it. I watched a premier league game last w/e where a team just did not try and 2 days later their manager got fired. In horse racing there would have been a stewards enquiry but in soccer the players just get paid 50K a week regardless.
This w/e i saw the opposite side of sport. The rugby internationals would restore any ones faith. Not because Ireland won the championship or indeed that both Wales and England each scored fantastic victories keeping us all on the edge of our seats until the final whistles. It was the defeated teams who i would applaud most. Italy, being hammered by the Welsh still tried to the final whistle and got what turned out to be a pivotal try right at the end. Who knows what would have happened to Ireland if they had not scored this? Then the Scots refusing to give up the ghost even in the knowledge that their deadly enemies the English might turn out to be the major beneficiaries from their heroics. Then we had the French! They were a beaten docket from an early stage in their match but refused to give an inch and had us all shouting at the tvs when they decided to try and run their last penalty from their own line.
Yes sport is all about winning(professional sport anyway) but some times we should take our hats off to the gallant losers and yesterday was such a day!