They say that in sport it's the taking part that counts and while that was certainly the case for me when it came to rugby, I have to disagree with regard to participation in other sports.

Don't get me wrong, I love the taking part but watching it at the highest level is even better (although I have to say I draw the line at bowls which might be just about the only thing I can't watch).

I relish match-ups and head-to-heads involving the best players or teams in the world. Watching Roger Federer toy with the opposition at a tennis tournament, just like Tiger Woods does at most golf events, is to watch a master at work.

But the most gripping sport I have watched so far this year was one that has to fight for credibility. Darts, in many people's eyes, is a pastime not a sport.

But when Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld faced each other in their sudden death play-off during the World Darts Championship it became one of those classic sporting moments.

In their deciding leg, both players threw maximum scores of 180 with such regularity it evoked memories of the great shoot-outs involving Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson and John Lowe.

It made for compulsive viewing: two gunslingers in a showdown for a £100,000 purse. In the end, it was the Dutchman who prevailed because he kept his nerve but, had he missed, the smart money would have been on Taylor retaining the world crown such was the consistency of both men's play.

A similar scenario unfolded with 10 seconds remaining in rugby's World Cup final in 2003. As the clock ticked down, Jonny Wilkinson had one shot for glory or Australia would have taken the title, but the England stand-off made the drop goal and the rest is history. Particularly so, since no one remembers the three missed attempts earlier in the match, just the one that counted.

There is a reason for all this nostalgia: I was fortunate enough to witness at first hand Manchester United's dismantling of AS Roma at Old Trafford - the best football performance I, and probably many others who were there that evening, will have ever seen. I also had the privilege of seeing the Rinus Michels' Dutch sides of the 1970s but it would have to have been Miss World on heat to be more attractive than United's performance in putting seven past the Italians.

Understandably, not all team displays can reach the heights displayed by Sir Alex Ferguson's team last week and there is also a murkier side to sport that rears its head from time to time.

The cricket World Cup is in full swing in the Caribbean and, yet again, match-fixing has been talked about almost as much as the cricket. The Irish team did what Scotland couldn't, but it was during one of their matches that the spectre of match-fixing is alleged.

Ireland's defeat of Pakistan has been yet more evidence for the conspiracy theorists, who went to town claiming the Pakistanis had thrown the game. Spread betting has produced a proliferation of markets to bet on in cricket and the industry is huge on the sub-continent.

This got me thinking how lucky we are in rugby that the same allegations are not made when strange results occur.

Imagine the odds you would have got on Scotland being 21 points down after five minutes against Italy? Not one person has accused the Scots of match-fixing, but they would have if it had been cricket. The referee in the Italy v Wales game blew his whistle before Wales could take a lineout, thus handing victory to their opponents. Imagine what would be accused if the umpire in cricket did the equivalent?

Maybe the conspiracy theorists have got something, though, with the Heineken Cup fiasco that is occurring at present. As it stands, any English team in the Guinness Premiership will not play in next year's tournament, but teams from League One will be asked to fill the breach. Bottom-placed Northampton Saints are in the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup this weekend and have a real chance of winning it.

Which could raise the mischievous question: are they trying to get relegated so that they can defend the Heineken Cup next year?

Next week: the moon landings were a hoax.