HAS there been a more embarrassing 24 hours to be a supporter of English sport? Probably. After all, it's not as though underachievement is anything new. But even by the shoddy standards we've learned to set for ourselves, the efforts of England's footballers and rugby union players on Friday night and Saturday morning were desultory in the extreme.

The footballers might have made it to next summer's European Championships in Poland and Ukraine, but everything else about a miserable night in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, provided a chilling foretaste of what is likely to happen when they get there.

So many of the failings that were all too apparent in last summer's World Cup in South Africa reared their ugly head once more. Nervous and hesitant in possession, pedestrian and predictable in attack, an English side that appeared to be cruising when they established a two-goal lead in the opening half hour found themselves holding on for dear life despite Montenegro having rested three key players in anticipation of a more important qualifier against Switzerland tomorrow.

Had the home side been at full strength, or had the game been five minutes longer, it might well have been England requiring a play-off to reach Euro 2012.

As it is, Fabio Capello's side have scraped through, largely thanks to Wales, who pulled off a surprise victory over Montenegro and then proceeded to miss an open goal to hand England two precious points at Wembley.

Poland and Ukraine beckon, although with rather less lustre for Wayne Rooney, who will have to wait a little longer than the rest of the squad for his Euro 2012 debut.

Rooney will definitely miss England's first group game, and may yet also be suspended for their second, following his senseless kick at Miodrag Dzudovic during the second half of Friday's draw.

Repeatedly touted as England's talisman, Rooney's achievements at international level are totally out of kilter with his reputation. When was the last time he did anything of note against major opposition? Wretched at the World Cup finals, Friday's pathetic act of petulance was merely the latest in a lengthening line of indiscretions. Was it not for a glaring lack of alternatives, it would be tempting to urge Capello to take a stand and write Rooney out of the Euro 2012 equation entirely.

In truth, though, the same could be said of a host of players who continue to strut around the international arena with the air of a World Cup winner, but none of the medals to go with it.

Ashley Cole, John Terry, Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard - weren't we supposed to have seen the last of England's so-called 'golden generation' last summer? Well they were still there on Friday, and it's a safe bet that Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard will be returning to board the plane to Eastern Europe next summer.

Ageing stars, pampered to a point where the pride of representing their country is taken for granted, led by a manager too cowed to swing the axe and start anew. And watching on from the sidelines, a media and fanbase that repeatedly build them up into something they're not. Not to put too fine a point on it, England's footballers are simply not as good as they, and we, think they are.

The same, of course, is true of the rugby side, and many of the failings that Capello has been unable to address during his tenure have ultimately done for Martin Johnson at the RFU.

Ageing stars deemed undroppable because of their past achievements? Jonny Wilkinson, Lewis Moody, Simon Shaw, Mike Tindall and Steve Thompson are all well into their 30s, yet there they were lumbering through the motions as England desperately tried to claw back a 16-point deficit to France on Saturday morning.

A shallow pool of talent despite a domestic league that is lauded as one of the best in the world? Johnson has had four years to come up with a viable centre pairing, yet in the biggest match of his tenure, he was forced to throw in Toby Flood, a fly-half, and expect him to gel with Manu Tuilagi overnight. Unsurprisingly, he didn't, but when the next best option is Matt Banahan, perhaps Johnson can justifiably claim he could not win.

Players who look increasingly detached from the everyday reality of the fans who support them? From the dwarf-throwing scandal in Queenstown to the allegations that a hotel worker made against James Haskell, Chris Ashton and Dylan Hartley, this has been the World Cup when England's rugby players became every bit as ill disciplined and unfocused as the footballers.

And at the heart of their woes, you can even throw in a misfiring number ten. Just as Capello has been forced to place an unsustainable level of faith in the over-hyped Rooney, so Johnson has discovered that his own go-to man is no longer the player he once was.

Wilkinson had a wretched World Cup. His game management is not what it once was, his tackling is a shadow of its former self - he was particularly culpable for the build up to France's decisive second try at the weekend - and even his previously reliable goal kicking stuttered in a way few could have envisaged.

There were plenty of other players who were worse, but in terms of both his pivotal role at fly-half and his perceived psychological importance, an off-colour Wilkinson affected the rest of the team. Exactly the same was true of Rooney in South Africa last summer, but that's what you get when you put all your eggs in a basket marked, 'This is our match-winner'.

Capello now has eight months in which to develop an alternative vision, a way of playing that does not rely on his suspended number ten and an altered mindset that enables England players to perform in a manner that is greater than the sum of their parts.

The alternative is that the sight of an England side trudging dejectedly out of a major championships will be repeated at an early stage of proceedings next June.