Le Rutting Stag

I don't believe I'm the only person who noticed that Zinedine Zidane's already infamous headbutt on Italy's Marco Materazzi in Sunday's World Cup final, was not entirely dissimilar to the way an agressive stag behaves during the rutting season.

True, Materazzi's 'stag' didn't exactly enter into the 'rut' but Zidane's superb full-body charge was magnificent. Had he been in the rolling woodlands east of Berlin, rather than at it's football stadium, Zidane could well have held claim to the title King of the Stags.

Alas for Mr Zidane, his rather base actions were witnessed by about 9.7 trillion people. I quite expected him to say that he's slipped on some raisins or that he was trying to cure Mr Materazzi's windy-pops. So far though, the proud Frenchie has kept his lips tightly sealed but the word is that the Italian chap said something nasty to Mr Z.

Whatever was said, it was it prompted a display of world class rutting the like of which we've not seen since David Attenborough's marvellous wildlife programme 'The Rutting Stags of The Alpine Slopes'. Mind you, it's a good job Zidane didn't actually have antlers, otherwise he's have shoved Materazzi's nipples into his shoulder blades. Sacre bleu.

Oh yeah, Italy won the match by the way.