The best of British: What England can learn from Wales and Northern Ireland

For the home nations, the first phase of the Euros really could not have gone better.

Wales, England and Northern Ireland all qualified for the knock-out: as results go only the most giddy optimist would have predicted that one. For sure, they have been aided by the expansion of numbers which made the group stage not much more than an exercise in working out who plays who in the knock outs. But some footballing countries with aspirations are heading home. Though, in the case of Russia, it is hard to suggest anyone will miss them.

England remain the great enigma, somehow always less than the sum of their parts, rarely illuminating, generally disappointing. But at least, unlike in Brazil, they are still in contention, albeit that, thanks to their failure to win their group, they now find themselves on the side of the draw not so much tough as impossible. Still a route to the final blocked by France and Germany could have been worse. They might have been Spain and ended up drawing Italy in the last 16.

Yet it is another competition in which England’s finest have so far failed to rise to the occasion. Wayne Rooney, Eric Dier and Kyle Walker apart, few of Roy Hodgson’s men have yet set the tournament on fire. Whether it has been through their own performance (Raheem Sterling) or oversight from the manager (John Stones, Ross Barkley) there are more than a few members of the squad who came here with the chance to confirm themselves on the wider consciousness, yet have singularly failed to seize the opportunity.

Northern Ireland, by contrast, have played way above themselves, their close defeat to Germany a model of effective belligerence, characterised by a quite brilliant performance from their goalkeeper Michael McGovern, a player who with every save against the world champions furthered his chances of finding himself in a Premier League club by the end of August. Jonny Evans and Gareth McAuley too have seized their chance to shine. This is what a tournament like this can do: enhance reputations.

And nowhere has it been more apparent than in the Wales squad. The Welsh came to France with the absolute collective determination that they were not simply there to make friends and enjoy themselves. Chris Coleman made it manifestly clear from the moment they set up camp in Brittany that the mere act of qualification was not in itself sufficient. Having got to a major championship for the first time in 58 years, he was insistent they were going to do justice to themselves.

The lead has been set by Gareth Bale. How his approach to this tournament contrasts with that of Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the two other world class practitioners here representing less than stellar national sides. While for both Ronaldo and Zlatan, everything has revolved around them – from the way their country plays to the focus of the lenses at training, Bale has utterly subsumed his ego into the wider group. When he scores he heads straight to the bench to share the celebrations with the backroom staff. When Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic score… well actually we don’t know what they do since neither has come close to hitting the net so far, Ronaldo even squandering a penalty.

The great thing for Bale is that the mood of togetherness into which he has so readily bought has elevated those around him. Aaron Ramsey and Joe Allen both played against Russia as well as they ever have done in a red shirt. Admittedly the Russians were pitifully ineffective, but Ramsey and Allen were still clearly making the most of their moment, seizing their chance to excel on the international stage, recognizing that it is in the nature of representing a small country that opportunities like this do not come round by right. Blasé they weren’t.

And nowhere has the desire to enjoy the moment been more evident than in the performance of James Chester. A player who never considered that he might play international football, who went through the youth game without ever once playing for England’s age-group representative sides, had assumed he was always just going to be a club player. He wasn’t unhappy with that – after all he was playing at clubs in the Premier League. But he simply thought when it came to big international tournaments they were something his club team mates participated in while he watched on telly.

Then he got a call last year from Chris Coleman who had identified he had Welsh heritage and suddenly a whole new avenue opened up for him. And how he has relished it. In all three group games he was a stand-out player: quick, incisive, intelligent. As showcases go, here he is showing the world quite why Sir Alex Ferguson still describes him as the one that got away from the Manchester United academy system, the player he most regrets letting go from the club.

In their own unique way, the ability of the Welsh and Northern Irish to rise to the occasion rather than be cowed by it is something that England’s players have routinely failed to do over the years. But, thanks to their qualification, there is still time. At this most open of competitions, in which no-one has yet looked like champions in waiting (apart perhaps from the brilliant, belligerent Croats) England may yet surprise us all. They might actually play above themselves.

If they take the lead from the Welsh and their vigorous esprit de corps, who knows where it might lead them.