So the world cup is over, and what have we learnt?There were some controversial issues, some very close matches and some really angry fans.
The New Zealand fans are most likely the only fans walking away from this world Cup happy and content, feeling vindicated after the 2007 fiasco where Wayne Barnes was seen as the villain and was it not for his love of the game and the desire to keep officiating in rugby Union, he might have been in witness protection by now, living off the coast of Spain with a little fishing trawler earning his living stocking coastal restaurants with stock for their Pajella’s.Be that as it may there were 16 tests contested between six nation and the newly formed 4 nation sides of which 8 matches were within a few points.
Pool Matches:
England 13 – Argentina 9
Argentina 13 – Scotland 12
South Africa 17 – Wales 16
England 16 – Scotland 12.
Had Wales kicked their penalty in the 2nd minute (albeit being incorrectly awarded) or the missed drop goal by Priestland, they could have met Australia in the quarter final.
Had Scotland been able to secure one try against an England team they played well between the two 22’s, they could have gone through to face France in the quarter finals.
Had Argentina been able to beat an average England team in their opener, they could have avoided New Zealand and met France in the quarter final, a team they would feel more confident about beating.
Knock-out matches:
South Africa 9 – Australia 11
France 9 – Wales 8
Australia 21 – Wales 18
New Zealand 8 – France 7
Had Wales not lost Warburton after a mere 18 minutes to a red cad, they might have met New Zealand in the final.
Had South Africa been able to get some reward for their possession and territory by having any other referee on the planet who would actually want to be involved in officiating a match, or not passed the ball forward when they crossed the whit wash, or kicked one drop goal, they may have met New Zealand in the semi final.
Had it been for one more kickable penalty for France or just being able to close the defence on the line out when New Zealand broke through the middle of the lineout to score, they might have been world champions.
Seventeen points separated 8 matches, which could have gone either way.
Was it referees, poor execution, defence, cheating, pushing the laws to the limit, ability to read referees better, or was it just pure LUCK?
In my opinion this world cup has shown that for a team to progress in this tournament, it is a little bit of everything, but the most important factors were referees, defence, injuries and luck.
In the case of South Africa those were certainly the factors.
Referee: Bruce Lawrence (By not officiating the breakdowns)
Injuries : Frans Steyn, Bakkies Botha, Juan Smith, Heinrich Brussow and Andries Bekker (Frans Steyn in my opinion the most important and Heinrich Brussow after only 20 minutes in the quarter final)
Defence: Australia defended like Trojans (Ignoring the things they got away with)
Luck (How do you not win with that amount of possession and territory, and those damn forward passes)
What say ye?
I say the REAL World Champion side is wearing the RWC 2011 Gold medals and lifted the William Web Ellis trophy.
The tournament was bad in many ways. Nothing to be proud off IRB.
Again the only nation that can feel happy is New Zealand. Their economy might have scored, their fans will be happy, but like you said Biltonbek they are the only happy bunch. Australia might be happy too. O and of course the Ref boss.
An independent study commissioned by MasterCard during the tournament has indicated that the event is due to deliver NZ$750 million in direct economic benefits for New Zealand and more than NZD$2 billion in long-term benefits.
Smaller countries walk away from this RWC feeling unhappy about their playing schedule.
I cant wait to hear what the verdict is on refereeing. It was the tournament with the most referee influence i have ever seen.
What do you think about the French accepting the Haka challenge?
I see they might be fined.
I just wonder what went on in the mind of the All Blacks when the French did their thing. Some looked a bit annoyed and confused for me. I just loved the French move, there i knew they will play the All Blacks and they dont fear them.
I really liked the way they appraoched the Haka, it makes for mor drama, of the french cop a fine for that, then it is truly pathetic
Biltongbek and superBul
The French will almost certainly receive a hefty fine.
The haka is now well and truly protected and (if my memory serves me correctly) the opposing team are not supposed to encroach beyond THEIR OWN 10m line.
I thought the French acceptance of the challenge was both innovative and refreshing.
As for the game, I think I expressed my disapointment in the refereeing of the breakdown (amongst other areas) enough yesterday.
Did Joubert suddenly become blind to the AB’s lying all over the place at the breakdown? He’s a better ref’ than that.
However, on the balance of all of the teams the best team at the tournament won it, I would just have liked to have seen a fairer contest in the final.
The IRB have MUCH food for thought after this tournament, but on their previous record, I think we’ll just see them announce that it was a successful WC, and they’ll let the (now) sleeping dogs rest in the hope that they’ll pass quietly on during their sleep.
After all, the IRB are not exactly the most concientous and forward thinking sporting body in the world today. In fact IMO, they’ve just about dropped as low as FIFA!
There was absolutely nothing special about this World Cup, other than the fact that the chokers lost their tag vs a team that lost 2 pool matches. Me thinks 2003 and 2007 were much better, if compared to some reasons mentioned below.
It will be remembered for the wrong reasons. Woeful referees cost 2 teams their knockout matches. Wales in the semi and France in the final. Joubert was absolutely crap, too overwhelmed by and scared of the home crowd to penalise the half-Aussies in the rucks.
I say only 2 teams, because of the little variance in possesion and dominance in those matches. Yes, Bryce was gemors, but the Boks played dumb rugby and dominated the match to such an extent that no referee should’ve had an influence. Much like NZ in 2007 couldn’t blame Barnes, as they shot themselves in the foot.
The quality in rugby in general were poor, other than what Wales dished up for us. I for one actually enjoyed the Currie Cup more.
Goal kicking was a disaster, and you had to pinch yourself to realise you were watching international, professional goal kickers.
The format of the RWC was shown up again as just being plain wrong and unfair. @you only have to look at the French as an example.
The Samoan captain’s issues with the IRB and NZ threatening to withdraw from future world cups also didn’t help the cause.
As far as the warm and friendly hosts were concearned, well, that doesn’t mean much for the majority of rugby enthusiasts around the world in front of the TV, does it?
Rugbyprof wrote:
Just heard on Jacaranda Radio that there is quite a outcry about his refereeing. He must be rated high in NZ anyway. You are right he was not tough enough for the job.
The level of rugby played at this WC is the poorest that I can remember. How many games really stand out as good rugby? Most of them have Wales as a common denominator. The reffing was poor, as was the goal kicking.
Scrumdown wrote:
French in rage over Joubert
2011-10-24 08:44
Cape Town – In the wake of the 8-7 Rugby World Cup final defeat to the All Blacks, the French public have laid the blame at referee, Craig Joubert’s doorstep.
Shortly after Joubert had brought the curtain down on the tournament, a few French supporters decided to ‘alter’ his French Wikipedia page.
According to Die Volksblad, French tabloid, lescandaleumag, who tweeted the occurrence, some two hours after the match had ended in which the altered Wikipedia insert repeatedly makes reference to Joubert as a ‘cheat’.
“(Sic) He did not see the mistakes (from the All Blacks). He was undoubtedly single-eyed,” read one of the sections on the page and ended with “VOLEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUR” (which means ‘thief’ in French).
Amidst suggestions that France were handed a raw deal in Sunday’s World Cup Final, Bleus coach Marc Lièvremont has taken the high road and not blamed the referee for the result.
Despite being bombarded by repeated questions regarding the officiating, Head Coach Lièvremont would not be drawn into criticism of referee Craig Joubert.
“I met him (Joubert) two days ago and I told him that I thought he is the best referee in the world,” said Lièvremont.
“I told him that the pressure must be enormous and that everyone can make mistakes. I promised him that whatever happened, I would not say anything about the refereeing.”
While some pundits have suggested that Richie McCaw was lucky to get away with not being blown up more regularly at the breakdown as the French plied the pressure, his opposite number, Thierry Dusautoir, was gracious in defeat.
“I am very disappointed with the result but it’s not the moment to criticise the referee,” said Dusautoir.
“He is one of the best in the world and we did not do enough to get the vital penalty we needed at the end.”
The France scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili was however prepared to go a step further.
“The referee was under a lot of pressure,” he said.
“He did not want us to win. That said, I think New Zealand deserved their win because they are the best team in the world. They have shown that throughout the tournament.”
Fly-half François Trinh-Duc was equally frustrated.
“I’m not going to throw stones at the ref, we know that the context was against us,” he said.
With that i am out, did my Ref bashing and now for some work.
@ superBul:
If Joubert did blow up Reechee and his mates and the French won, do you think he would have been more unpopular than Bryce? 🙂
@ Rugbyprof:
he could have been dead. Yes for sure.
morning everyone
…
1. i think this wc will be remembered for the wrong reasons like you guys said … officiating being the major discussion point …
but
i dont want to appear suurgat
so
congratulations to
the allblacks …. for not choking (as much as other years)
paddy o’brien …. puppetmastery101 … you should really write a book, bru
and’
the irb … for ensuring that the no1 team at last can add another wc to their list of achievements … that include
1. ensuring they host the wc
2. ensuring the head a pool by changing to using the “ratings” rather than the results from the previous wc
…
ok, that said,
am i the only one on here that thought that nz was choking big time in the 2nd half?
@ Ashley:
No definetly not. At one point they had the “rabbit in the headlights” look, and if Joubert had blown to the rules he could have penalised the AB’s on more than a couple of occasions when they failed to roll away or let the tackled player go.
But as you say, it’s done and dusted.
It was interesting to hear Div’s comments on Toks n Tjops last night. He feels that with the new crop of players coming through SA are better positioned than ever before for future WC’s.
He may be right, but I suppose it depends on who gets the job of molding those youngsters into a TEAM.
Morning everyone!!!!
As i watched the final and saw, deer in the headlights looks as scrumdown said I was thinking, what if Les Bleu win, I think there would have been mass suicide in NZ!!!!!
The second half was definitely all France…..
that being said, the AB’s gave it their all, at on stage Reeeecheeee couldn’t even stand up his foot was so sore, and he just carried on, and at least now they can shut up for the next 21 years hahahahaha
Anyway, I do believe they deserved it this year, so well done All Blacks!!!!
I know they have like a 3 day public holidays to celebrate the victory hahahaha
In the end the better team won but they needed luck. It could so easily have gone the other way. In our instant gratification culture, there is a fine line between hero and zero while in reality there is a vast gulf. The overwhelming feeling among Kiwis must have been relief because they know how close it was.
People are funny. With all these moans about the refs how many are in favour of involving more technology?? Here’s looking at you SuperBul. You complain about the ref but don’t want to change the system. No, you want the ref to become perfect. Face reality. The only way to minimise human error is to reduce the role of the human.
scrumdown @ 16
yep, cant wait for the announcement of the new coaching staff.
interesting thing is that ive still got quite a few friends that still support the allblacks (no, thats not the interesting fact)
thing is, almost all of them (barring one idiot) thought that they were:
lucky
chocking big time
and
that they (nz) will most propably never win another wc again, given the fact that
they were hosting it
and were playing in front of a jam-packed venue full of their supporters
and still looked like the occassion was too big for them!
…
as one of them put it: they will never win the wc again,
because they’re just too good!! 😀
i fullheartedly agreed!! 😆
I am just thrilled that the yellow bellied sheepshagging convicts didn’t win the WC hehehehehe
#19 I agree, if the technology is there…..use it!!!! if one can limit human error why not?
@ Ashley:
Was thinking the same thing. Can go either way. Or the All Blacks will now have the confidence to win many more WCs or as I think more likely, they won’t win another again for many many years.
turk @ 23
i believe their biggest obstacles are:
1. they kind of game they’re playing … take note irb, you can change the laws all you want, but when it comes to knock-out games, the kind of rugby nzlanders love, time and again will be the wrong kind of rugby for the occasion
and
2. the way they breeze through the 4 years between wc’s. not their fault really, and the discussion with most of the guys mentioned in a previous post (barring the idiot) centred along the lines of what the allblacks can do to get into situations where they are tested more often. selecting “weaker sides” on purpose came up, but then even “weaker” nz sides between wc turn out to be yards better than anyone else!
trips @ 22
agree!! the varsitycup showed what can be done and how technology can be (wisely) used without slowing the game down!!
Man, you guys dissappoint me.
In every article I write I bring in a little sarcastic or funny piece, and it seems no one catches on to it.
@ biltongbek:
Sorry bbek. maybe you should consider taking the biltong out of your bek and instead write with your tongue in cheek
The_Young_Turk wrote:
No you got it wrong i am in favor of technology, i always felt and said a card must be sent to the TMO and stuff like that. The fact that the game might last 2 and a half hours does not bother me to much, the result must be the right one.
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