Earlier today, New Zealand won the Rugby World Cup with a narrow vctory over the extreme underdogs, France. On Friday, Australia won the loser's prize of 3rd place against a Wales side that seemed to have lost at least half of it's raison d'etre.
It's hard to dent the All Blacks moment of triumph but this was not a good performance. It could even be argued that, on the day, the French were more deserving of victory. The problem is that it was not a match to savour and neither side was particularly good; given a following wind, Wales would have beaten both, but for an unfortunate exit at the semi-final stage, by a single point to France while playing with only 14 men.
New Zealand won and lifted the trophy. So what ? It was not a good tournament and there was no outstanding team; the best were probably South Africa, the defending champions who were ousted, unaccountably, by Australia, and Wales, along with New Zealand. The French were never in real contention until the final and, even them they came up short, though only just.
Overall, it was a disappointing tournament, with too many of the old guard representing the major players; it was a competition for a lot of tired old men trying to grab a moment they were no longer entitled to. I don't begrudge New Zealand their victory, in fact I shouted them on, but it was far from the exhibition of Rugby that it should have been. Let's hope that 2015, in England and Wales, will be a little different.
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