Hype... ballyoo… propaganda… where would sport be without them? They are all part of the build-up to almost every big occasion.

When a major event fails to live up to all the pre-match hype – the Champions League final for instance – you can always rely on the commentary team to do their best to cover over the cracks.

What promised to be a thrilling spectacle between two of England’s finest teams turned out to be nothing of the sort. Or, in the words of the BT commentators: “It was not pretty but it was efficient and clinical.”

“An unsatisfying conclusion,” was another verdict.

Couldn’t all that really be summed up in one four-letter word? Dull.

Of course, this only matters if you were a neutral watching Liverpool and Tottenham toil through the sort of 90 minutes that neither set of fans would remember if it had been a mid-season Premier League game.

I suspect there was not a single Liverpool fan anywhere in the half-million or so who welcomed home Jurgen Klopp and his team on Sunday who cared a jot about the quality of the final even after learning via the new obsession with statistics that the ball was out of play for 40 minutes.

“Painting the town red” doesn’t even come close to describing the reception that greeted the six-times European Champions.

Nobody does hype better or bigger than boxing promoters so how will they explain away the shock defeat of Anthony Joshua by an opponent who looked as though he had just escaped from a Rugby Union front row?

The fight in New York was supposed to be a formality with the world champion conquering America.

The Mexican Andy Ruiz was only a substitute opponent who had just six weeks’ notice of the fight.

A shock seventh round defeat inevitably brought out the shock-horror headline that boxing thrives on.

IS THIS THE END OF THE WORLD FOR JOSHUA?

So, one shock defeat could signal the end of the world? Not according to the man himself who said: “I got hit one too many times. Trust me, I’ve dealt with worse than this with some real losses and bounced back.”

Stand by for more over-the-top puffery from the boxing world when certain other heavyweights – one in particular - line up to relieve Ruiz of his new status.

*Forget the success of the Barcelona adventure that drew Super League’s biggest crowd outside the Grand Final - 31,000-plus for Catalan Dragons against Wigan.

Ignore the moderate success of drawing 56,000 spectators to the Magic Weekend at Anfield.

The result that CEO Ralph Rimmer and the marketing men of rugby league must have been praying for came on Thursday night – the holders Catalan Dragons are out of the Coral Challenge Cup.

For all the publicity, glitz and glamour of the French side’s Wembley win last year, the bare facts are that the stadium was little more than half full.

So now we have four heartland clubs in the semi-finals, can we look forwards to a packed Wembley on August 24?

If the quarter-final turn-outs are an indication of things to come then the marketing men will have to earn their fees.

A grand total of 21,187 bothered to turn out for the four games.

Put this down to the green-eyed monster inside many RL fans, but I look on in envy at the way rugby union knows how to put on a show.

The day after a full house of 80,000 at Twickenham turned out for the Premiership Final, the stage was handed out to a pair of end-of-season exhibition matches – ladies and men’s games between England and the Barbarians.

A crowd of 40,230 shows that when it comes to pulling in the crowds, league has a lot to learn from union.

*It was not the best send-off – England 0 New Zealand 1 is not the sort of score you expect to see above a football match report very often.

But Phil Neville, head coach of England ladies’ team was hardly tearing his hair out as the White Ferns shocked the Lionesses at Brighton’s Amex Stadium, the last warm-up game ahead of the Women’s World Cup in France.

“The disappointing thing is we got an unbelievable crowd (20,000) and we have not got the win they deserved,” Neville said.

England, ranked third in the world, are among the World Cup favourites and kick off their bid against Scotland this weekend.

World Cups are not won on the strength of warm-up performances and Neville has more incentive than most to bring home the trophy; his twin sister Tracey is head coach of the England netball team who take on the world at Liverpool later in the year.