Editorial: Rugby World Cup first half has shown NZ at its best

Kiwis supporting Romania at the Rugby World Cup. Photo / Getty Images

The Rugby World Cup is truly a game of two halves. The first half, a round-robin festival, has finished and a different sort of contest is about to begin.

The final rounds are a merciless knockout competition between familiar foes who have their eye solely on the prize. The spotlight is no longer roving around the country; it focuses on Auckland and Wellington this weekend, then solely on Auckland for the semifinals and final.

Fortunately, the first half of this game can be celebrated regardless of what happens in the second. Already, the country has had an experience to match anything that can happen on a rugby field. People in smaller places have filled stadiums to near capacity for games between distant nations.

Towns have put up their bunting, farmers have put placards in road-facing fields, countless people have flags flying on their homes and cars.

It's been hard to assess how many overseas visitors the pool phase of the cup has attracted. Irish, Welsh, French and Canadians have been evident. But it's been hard to gauge numbers, partly because so many New Zealanders have put on ancestral colours for the occasion or simply adopted a country for no other reason than its team is playing or staying in their town.

In some places without a visiting team or game, the fun has arrived in the form of an event organised ostensibly for visitors but in fact for the enjoyment of residents a long way from the match venues. Travelling roadshows of rugby memorabilia and inflated play equipment have been to all corners of the country.

For visitors from countries where rugby is a minor sport, the New Zealand experience has lived up to its billing. The World Cup has dominated every television channel, newspaper and popular conversation in a way that it could not in any of their countries, and has not in any other host nation.

The event was barely a week under way before it had made nonsense of comment from an International Rugby Board official that this country could not host another World Cup. The IRB might not receive the television revenue it could get for games in Europe's time zones but it's getting the same fee from New Zealand that it charged France, though this country is unable to recoup its full costs in ticket sales.

Rugby stands to gain more from this World Cup than can be measured in IRB grants to its weaker places. Players, officials and supporters from those countries will take home encouraging accounts of our rugby culture and their game's status here.

It may be too soon, at halftime, to be handing out accolades to the cup organisation, but some elements are already a success. The pre-match entertainment at those filled stadiums was finely calibrated.

The decision to have anthems sung properly by choirs rather than solo performers was wise. The choirs assembled for each venue by the New Zealand Choral Federation have done every nation proud and deserved better than to be denied seats at some venues.

Haka, performed by all Pacific teams, haven't put their imprint on the event to the extent that might have been expected.

The reason was probably not the criticism often heard from English commentators with tin ears for other cultures. The intended Polynesian character of the event probably suffered from the performances of Tonga and Samoa until their final games.

Ultimately, the festival is about rugby and sometimes it didn't provide the spectacle the crowds deserved. But referees have been doing their utmost to keep games brisk as well as getting scrums to work. Some of the northern teams, notably Ireland and Wales, are playing at a good pace now and may go very well in the second half of the cup.

But this is a moment to celebrate the first half. It's been New Zealand at its best.