RFU recommends further Twickenham expansion

Well, they had their jokes at our expense.
Tee hee hee, Fi

Mercy Buckets, France!

Simply put, France were fantastic hosts. Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Lyon, Toulouse all put on such a good atmosphere during the pool stages of the tournament. Fans from all countries mixed easily the whole time; people in shops, bars, cafes and hotels all welcomed us warmly. I am not taking anything away from Cardiff and Edinburgh, but they are what Crazy Don Rumsfeld calls ‘known knowns’ - though they were hilariously good fun, the ‘foreign field’ aspect of travelling around the south of France made for a memorable holiday. Sunny too, eh.

There was no animosity or arrogance projected between fans, no sore losing on our part that we saw - whether on the streets or in the stands. This only exists in the column inches of British newspapers.

Half an hour after the Cardiff loss (and a couple of tequilas) we were talking and laughing with French fans at the pub. And on the final weekend, French fans were still coming up to New Zealand fans, almost apologising for not going ‘all the way’, and saying the All Blacks remained the best team. That is cameraderie. Until next time, mon amis!

I seem to remember a lot of media opinions saying in 2003 that Australia had just hosted the best ever Cup, and they did take it to a new level on the back of their experience with the 2000 Olympics, but similar plaudits are now being offered up to the French.

I can’t wait until 2011, when I get the chance to welcome visiting rugger fans to our country. On reflection, here are my highlights:

Best Game: NZ v Portugal in Lyon.
Sunny day with a mental crowd cheering on both sides, especially the Portuguese. Amazing football-like atmosphere that went beserk when Portugal scored. Followed by Aussie v Wales in a nearby garden bar with loopy, dancing Portuguese fans.

Favourite Town: Aix-en-Provence.
Not a venue as such, but our base (and the All Blacks’) for Marseille). Pretty fine town, great wine & food including the best pie-cart pizza - Le Royale was our poison. Told Keith Robinson about it ... so it may have been our fault if he looked weighed down. Sorry.

Best stadium: Toulouse
Walking distance from town, and on in island in the river. Not a huge stadium, but intimate and intense with a very knowledgeable crowd of locals, and our seats were so close we could hear the tackles. Halfway there was a Cup Village of bars & bid TVs to watch other matches.

Best All Black
A tough one this, but I’ll pick Dougie Howlett. Thought he was essential for the game against France, and his work rate had been awesome against Scotland - he was ball hungry. He will be missed. Big ups to Alastair Williams, Jeremy Collins and Nicholas Evans too. Richie - no need to comment ... always class, they are changing the rules to cope with you, dude.

Best Player of The Rest
Hard to pick just one: Jason Robinson for his dancin’ feet and sheer guts - a class act. Nicky Little for that Fiji v Wales effort. Victor Matfield, awesome lock, and Simon Shaw too. Hernandez for adding a little Carlos to it all. Kid Steyn - he has ‘X’.

Best Game (that I saw)
Wales v Fiji. We watched it in Toulouse, at a bar by the river after NZ v Romania, and it was one of the best days of the whole trip. Awesome festival atmosphere, and one of the best games I have ever seen ... through bleary eyes, natch.

Moment of Doom
Forget the forward pass. The advantage Barnes gave us against France in the last minutes; Lukey took a pot shot, and the advantage vanished ... but a new scrum or penalty may have won it for us.

Best try (that I saw)
Kosuke Endo’s try for Japan against Wales. TV showed he tracked 110 metres before he touched down. Talk about sweeping, length of the field stuff.

Best Thing about being there
The atmosphere, the crazy bands in the stands (get them for 2011!) and the PA playing that loopy little bugle tune at every restart, followed by the crowd screaming ‘Ole’ or ‘Allez’. Beats all that loud ZM/FM pants music we get at Super 14 in Wellington. I hate Blur’s ‘Song 2’ so much these days.

Best Anthem
Argentina - who else would have a 30-40 second overture or intro before the actual singing. Tear jerking stuff, apparently.

Best Strip
Duh ... All Blacks. The worst was our ‘away’ silver abomination. Flick Adidas, they have done nothing for us. BRING BACK CANTERBURY!

I could go on, but I won’t. Time to get back to life.

See you in Aotearoa in 2011.
Lu

Le Grand Final

Not exactly a classic was it? There was more nervousness on show than genuine tension, and in the end I thought South Africa managed to play more like England, than England. There was no shape to either back line, and forwards just hung off, never committing to anything - they all looked a bit rudderless. It was probably the most boring final I have watched, and hopefully it draws a line under the whole ‘The best defence is a truck load of defence’ style. It was another game where only a couple of players on each team would get more than 7/10 for their performances. Viktor was a true victor though.

South Africa have though capped off an impressive year, what may be the end of an era usher in if ‘transformation’ really kicks in. At least Jake White can produce a World Cup as an argument for the government not being too radical or going as far as that being the last time we see a team called the Springboks at a World Cup. One thing I enjoyed about ITV's coverage (just one, mind) was Francois Pienaar’s input; he was passionate, yet succinct, unbiased (on camera) and informative. I bet he is happy.

John Smit also impressed me after the full-time whistle. No sky-punching, screaming histrionics from him - he just stood still, taking it all in with a look of pure satisfaction on his face, right up until he got the Cup in his hand. Dignity personified?

England: Great run though it was, they just did not play enough rugby to win a World Cup. Sheer pluckiness, personal messages from Kenny Rogers and a phenomenal left boot alone could not do it. The line out failed, the kicking game failed, and the back line again looked pedestrian at best. In the end it was a mighty title defence that fell at the last hurdle.

The call on the disallowed Cueto ‘try’ by the TMO (sorry, the ‘Australian TMO’ as they call him up here in t’North) was right. With a sniff of touch involved it was never going to go England’s way and he had plenty of looks at it; had it been merely a grounding issue I think they may have got it. It was a great break by Tait began that move, and he is one of the shining lights for England, a player they rightly have talked up for two years, and with more like him on the books, its time for a Young Guns team building to 2011. Let Vickery rest, and sell Dallaglio to an Indian breakers yard.

The player power that supposedly got them to the final could not win it, and it will not rebuild them - they must look to 2011 now, and not blow it again like they did after 2003 ... if they can sort the club v country situation out. England have the raw materials to truly dominate the sport, at least in the Northern Hemisphere if not the world, and like it or not rugby and the World Cup need a strong England. The Six Nations will be a true test of whether anything from the tournament sticks ... then of course the two tests in New Zealand next year [sound of licking chops].

The final was totally inferior to the France v Argentina game the night before. Obviously there was not a World Championship riding on that game, and less pressure helped it as a contest, but Argentina were superb, from 1 through to 15 playing an aggressive, open game that went against their previous tactical nouse and simply left Les Bleus stunned. I thought that Honiss and his two touchies showed a lot of restraint in the first 40 minutes, and by not over-reacting with cards they allowed the match to be an 80 minute contest. Old and young, the Pumas have some real stars & match winners, moulded by the professional careers in France.

It was a grand final in only one way - loads of previously disgruntled Kiwis got in excess of 1,000 pounds/euros each for their final tickets. Cue more currency flowing in, inflationary pressure ... now the ABs are to blame for the housing boom!

With a podium finish the Argentinians really must be admitted into some form of expanded Tri-Nations, or a new tournament between World Cups, along with more big games for the Pacific teams. More tests is not simply the answer; quality or at least meaningful games must reign over straight quantity but despite all the accusations of the NZRU behaving like a brutal plantation owner towards Polynesia, the biggest hurdle to genuinely freeing up Test rugby between World Cups remains the British and French clubs' obsession with the football model of squads, ownership, salaries and player release. Until there is a professional league in Argentina though, how can this move forward? There is nothing for the French based players to come home to, and indeed their coach and star No. 10 may both well be at Leicester next season. Fancy a Balti?

Lord Sphincter cut loose another series of insane utterances over the weekend. I think we should actually take any dig at the All Blacks or New Zealanders as a compliment now. Given the fact that we went out two rounds ago, and never even played Mighty England, it really is a measure of this bitter Welshman’s paranoia about our superiority that he rants about it constantly. Was he bullied when he visited Palmerston North with the Lions in 2005? Keep it up, Jonesy, you and the rest of your chums at The Times make me laugh. They are human though, I mean look at their pre-tourny picks ... but calling Paul Sackey a ‘dark diamond’? Well, isn't that the sort of Colonial Overlord attitude the ANC are trying to stamp out in South Africa?

These arrogant, parochial, Empire-obsessed snobs have already written off 2011, 48 hours after the 2007 final. New Zealand is now being accused of being some third world backwater that will billet teams & visitors in tents, and is manipulating the IRB into cutting the teams to 16, introducing a round-robin format, and changing the laws to ensure we win. Where do they get this shite from?!

Been interesting readin gwriter’s World Cup XVs, and you have to agree that no All Blacks is probably the right call. Our stars dimmed with two rounds to go, and anyone who did play out of their skins (namely Williams & Howlett) just don’t deserve to be ahead of the French, Argentinian, South African players. A lot of by the English press put Wilkinson & Robinson in, but I think that’s sentimentality.

And as a player leaving NZ (for Toulouse), and safe from recrimination, Byron Kelleher has seen fit to break silence a bit on our quarter final loss and squad rotation.

The new laws, the EVLs, look certain for Super 14 next year, but how long before Test rugby adopts them is unknown. Naturally we in New Zealand prefer the open rugby that the All Blacks specialise in, but we have seen once more in 2007 that it does not win World Cups. Rugby is an international (not global) sport, and that geographical spread does produce different styles (and disagreement over their respective merits), but variety is good and everyone has to adapt to win the thing. Are the new rules going to be just crowd pleasing effort to homogenise the very parts of the game that bred the variety? Or will they benefit the game truly?

If rules and their interpretation are not clear, clarify them. Don’t change for change sakes. This may well worsen the North/South political gap at the IRB buffet.

Whoah. Too long - round up of our Cup highlights to follow soon, as our sign off. Is anyone still reading? Well, it gives me something to do at work ... when I am not busy I mean.

Laterz

I Know Jonny’s got good range, but ...

This morning saw this appear on a plinth in Trafalgar Square. You could say people in the UK are waking up to the fact there is a big game of rubgy on tomorrow night, especially after their million pound boys choked. ... er, I mean, lost the Euro qualifier against Russia on Wednesday. Rugby is starting to dominate the media like never before. Well, not since 2003 anyway. Two weeks ago you had to come in about 7 or pages from the back to find any rugby in most papers, now the bandwagon is rolling on merrily.

Anyone checked whether the deposit on the open top bus in refundable?

Is it wrong for me to bacl South Africa solely for Southern Hemisphere reasons? Why is my anti-England stance seen as ungracious by my workmates or friends here? I back them in football - until the inevitable slip-up - but not in rugby. I mean, I did cheer them on against France in the Six Nations ... I want, and like, to see them play good, attacking rugby, which they are capable of. If they win it, they have to win it in style ... not just off Jonny’s boot. Fat chance according to Spiro Zavos.

I just hope it is a cracker of a game; tense, hard up front and explosive in the backs without whistle deciding the engraver’s job. It’s a cliché, but a ‘game of two halves’ would be great, seeing the teams adjust to each other’s styles, maybe counter-adjusting. Then the term World Champion will be deserved.

But meanwhile, back in 5th place ... The Guardian has a dig at us still obsessing over Wayne Barnes here. Considering what they source is almost word for word what they themselves published the day before, it serves no purpose. And what is The New Zealander? Are they making up media outlets now? I have never heard of that paper / website.

Reckon Planet Rugby got out of bed on the Northern side too with this line:

Just two weeks after they bowed out of the World Cup the All Blacks are faced with the prospect of losing the only thing that justifies their claim as the best rugby team in the world, the number one spot on the official International Rugby Board (IRB) rankings.

What do they mean “the only thing”? I mean its not like we got to the No. 1 spot a fortnight before the tournament started; we’ve been there for most of the preceeding four years, and we’ll be back there come June next year. If we played anyone tomorrow I reckon we would win. Of course it is a major dent in our pride that we did not convert that form into the Webb Ellis Cup - again - but most people know that we are consistently the best team, and rugby fans around the world will still come to see the All Blacks play because of it. At this tournament, we were the only team that played attacking rugby, game in, game out, so ask yourself, ‘Would you really be happy if NZ won the the Cup by playing like the All Blacks, or like England?’. Brazil’s soccer stars were not popular at home when they won the Football World Cup in 1994, in the US ... they were criticised for a playing boring, un-Brazilian, non-Samba style game.

Its a World Cup thing. Are Italy the best football team in the world?

New Zealand are the Brazil of rugby, so why should we change our natural game just to win a pissy small mug with a pineapple on the lid? Keep it up I say - but at least practice drop goals more, eh.

Oh, come on the Lions as well in the Air New Zealand Cup final tonight, or early Saturday morning UK time. Hopefully with Steve Walsh out of the country we can get our hands our hands on a prize again. And which will be bigger ? ... the crowd or John Banks’ ego, I mean ... majority.

Laterz

Spin Cycle

Now, I prefer not to read The Times, in fact I try to avoid it even in an ablutions emergency, but at lunch on Sunday at a very nice Wandsworth boozer (for Ras’ birthday) it was sitting in front of me. What a pile of vicious, scurrilous, unilateral bile it was. How do they get off printing the deranged ramblings of bitter old fools like Alastair Campbell & that Welsh-born, English RFU sycophant S Jones. These two spout crap like media accredited Lord Haw Haws). Why does a mainstream broadsheet feel it needs to deal in this dross? Real rugby fans pay for their tickets, not like these lesser sorts. They have such an incredible chip on their shoulders about the All Blacks that they get given a double spread to utter forth about New Zealand - six days after beating Australia, then France!? They have not even played us this year (in fact they have not played us at a World Cup since 1995).

They may well end up the only World Champs with an inferiority complex. Again.

Campbell, you may remember him from previous invasions such as “45 Minutes From Whitehall”, is now a freelance Rent-a-Quote for Anything over here in the UK, and is an expert in offering his five quid's worth, even on any sport it seems. In the 2005 Fifa World Cup, last years Ashes, and now the 2007 Rugby World Cup he pops up constantly to give his ‘spin’ on things. However, as I believe Graham Henry said during 2005 Lions Tour, something along the lines of Campbell having no understanding of, and no affinity for, the game of rugby. Back in your hole.

Mind you, so much of the media in this event is not even about the actual games. It’s opinion and anything but accurate reportage - from all nations. Even this assemblage of bits and pixels is only the opinion of an ex-hockey player.

I do not really even get how the arrogant label can be applied to us? I honestly do not remember any All Blacks or any of their coaches displaying this arrogance we are tagged with; we do not berate other teams, players or administrators as a habit. Quiet confidence, no matter how misplaced it has now proven to be, is a completely different thing, and when English rugby basically consists of 30-odd plucky blokes, with the rest of the game’s structure still structurally and politically weak, these hacks should really pull their heads in.

I think they will find enough plaudits coming from genuine rugby fans for the Poms, especially the players that are genuinely world class, but when these hacks slag every one else off despite - against all odds - actually getting the chance to defend their World Championship you have to wonder what energy source or arcane power they use to travel between our dimension and theirs.

Henry seems to be getting more support - and vote for Project Ted at ruggerblogger.

Bernie the Door comes clean about his unspoken love for the All Blacks.

England v South Africa - no one predicted that. I mean, I think a lot of people did tout the Springboks as finalists, a long time ago ... and to be fair it actually caps off a fairly solid year for South Africa. This is why I do not bet on rugby - nothing I predict ever comes off. I should just shut up now, and shift the focus of this whole blog to something else.

Good luck to both teams. I suppose one positive is that we may see two teams, at least start, with different styles of rugby.

My wishes for the World Cup Final on Saturday night:
- Will Greenwood’s mic fails on ITV ... for 80 minutes
- Nelson Mandela leaves Prince Harry hangin’ at a high five attempt
- Laurence Dallaglio is ignored for post match comment
- We get to see some tries, you know, those five pointy things
- If England win, Tama Iti’s guerillas set off to Twickenham to steal the Cup for us all.