So England have not only made the Tri Nations Final Down Under but gone and whupped the Convicts when they got there. Just over a week ago you would have received long odds on the perennial one day underachievers stringing two wins together on demand. As comebacks go it doesn't quite put Lazarus into the shade but it isn’t far off.


 Sporting comebacks are the stuff of legend. The revival of the seemingly beaten is one of the attractions of Sport that keeps us coming back time and again. After all it has been the central theme of all six Rocky films and many more beside.


 In the 1970’s George Foreman was a fearsome opponent. A big, brooding heavyweight with concussive power in each fist and a stare that induced terror in most of his opponents. Even the great Joe Frazier succumbed to his power twice in short order. After a controversial loss to Jimmy Young in 1977 he quit the ring and became a Baptist Preacher.

 
 Almost exactly 10 years later Foreman, by now 23 stones, fond of cheeseburgers and with 9 children all named George Junior, returned to the ring, principally to raise money for his ministry and to get fit. Some might have laughed when Foreman got back into the ring but little known journeyman Steve Zouski didn’t laugh when George knocked him out. As the wins mounted up the laughs subsided and they were finally silenced when in 1994 Foreman sensationally knocked out Michael Moorer in the 10th round to once again become Champion of the World.

 
The oft mentioned comeback is England triumph over Australia at Headingley in 1981. However not as many talk about something equally incredible that happened later in the same series at Edgbaston. Australia were chasing a meagre 151 to win the Test Match and at 87 for 3 you had to say they were big favourites. Cue Ian Botham taking a breathtaking 5 wickets for 1 run in 28 balls to see England home by 30. Aussie Skipper Kim Hughes talked of coming back into the dressing room amid the carnage and feeling physically sick.

 
 Tales of comebacks are not exclusive to the human world. In the 1967 Grand National a 100-1 outsider Foinavon rode through the melee of fallen horses to triumph by 15 lengths.

 
 Comebacks though can just as easily end in failure. All too readily we can recall the 1993 Play Off Final at Wembley when Leicester rallied from 3-0 down early in the Second Half against Swindon Town, as Steve Thompson equalised there seemed only one winner. However one long Glenn Hoddle pass later combined with a striker with jelly legs in the box Swindon had scored the winner from the penalty spot. The great comeback had royally entertained the viewing public but had run out of steam at the very last.

 
 Not every comeback though is a desired one. Just cast your mind back to the Edgbaston Test match in 2005 when the Australians came within 2 runs of England having been out of sight at the start of play. Something remarkably similar happened at the MCG in 1982/83 where Australia found themselves 218 for 9 chasing 291 for victory. Alan Border and Jeff Thomson slowly formed a platform and to the surprise of many the game went into the final day. The Australians were famously ordered to reassemble for the final piece and wear exactly what they were the night before, and also to ‘resume positions’. With tension mounting Australia famously fell just 3 runs short of a miracle.


 There is one image of an unwanted comeback that will ever live in my memory. Going back not all that far Coventry City were again looking to perform their annual relegation Houdini act at the end of the season. Coventry, against all the odds, needed to win at Villa Park to prolong their long run in the top flight and the Sky Blues roared into a 2-0 lead. Surely they couldn’t escape again. Many Leicester fans in Hinckley and the surrounding area despaired at ever seeing ‘Cov’ take the drop they so richly deserved.

 
 The only remedy was a miraculous comeback to end the unwanted comeback. (Are you ‘comebacked out’?) Villa rallied and got one back, unbelieveably they scored again. Coventry were finally swinging over an open trapdoor. Late on another goal went in, 3-2, Coventry had subsided to defeat and they were finally down after over 25 years of playing with fire. To Villa fans it was a sweet moment, for Sky Blues it was a nightmare, to a Leicester supporting cricketing pie chucker and his granddad sitting in a house in Hinckley it was the sweetest sporting moment for some time.

 
 The moral of the story? Whatever you do never give up on a game no matter how lost the cause looks.