Given Fiji’s erratic formin the pool stages, I thought England would easily roll them out of the quarter-finals. Wrong.
Fiji had every chance to make the semifinals and they blew it. Chances like that – against a top nation not in top form – are few and far between.
Look at mighty Ireland, who have never made it to the semifinals.
England were there for the taking. History beckoned, and Fiji fell short. It’s a great shame. Perhaps the Fijians didn’t quite believe in themselves enough.
That’s what this tournament deserves. England and Argentina aren’t good enough.
Unless the Pumas can find a few more gears, and they do have them, they have next to no chance against the All Blacks. The Springboks should win well, but you can never quite tell with England and something might be brewing in their underrated squad.
England look up for a fight and they have some terrific forwards and a damaging centre in Manu Tuilagi.
Imagine an Argentina v England final. Yuck. Neither have played well enough to warrant progressing this far. But that’s how tournaments go sometimes and teams can spring to life at any time.
Sam Cane leads his teammates as the Irish players give the All Blacks a guard of honour at fulltime. Photo / Getty Images
WINNER/LOSER: France
They have been magnificent World Cup hosts and produced an outstanding team. The quarter-final against South Africa was a mainly terrific game, but at the end of the day, their record says they are World Cup chokers.
Hard to believe that South Africa, the home of brute-force rugby, are the team opening the door to innovations.
These have included parking a platoon of forwards on the reserves bench and playing a hybrid hooker/loose forward.
It must be presumed that Rassie Erasmus, South Africa’s rugby overlord (although not officially the coach) is mainly responsible.
A Springboks wing even had a crack at a drop goal from the back of a ruck against France and they tried a deceptive tap penalty move.
Nice to think that stick-in-the-mud New Zealand might join the party at some stage. We could start with a few tricky-dicky tap penalties and work up from there.
Have some fun with it, people... although knowing New Zealand rugby, they’d have to get it signed off by head office first.
Once, long ago, the All Blacks put down a three-man scrum against a mighty Lions pack.
We even dived en masse out of a lineout against Wales. While cheating isn’t kosher, the left-field thinking is.
LOSER: Milking
Now for a pet hate: halfbacks who deliberately try to pass the ball into stranded opponents in an effort to win penalties, a la Faf de Klerk against France. (It’s an Aaron Smith ploy as well). South Africa’s “innovations” over the years can also stretch to dodgy practices, including hard-to-police tactics to slow the game down.
WINNER: England characters
English rugby produces great characters, with prop Joe Marler definitely among them. Marler shoved his teammate Manu Tuilagi away during the quarter-final against Fiji, as if to say (I think) “don’t poke your nose into a forwards dispute”.
WINNER/LOSER: England’s fans/European rugby
The Sweet Chariots mob are the last fan-advantage standing in the World Cup semifinals, with the other three teams coming from the southern hemisphere. Once again, Europe has fallen short at a Rugby World Cup.
WINNER/LOSER: Rugby’s future
I keep looking at the high points of this World Cup and wonder if these can be transported into the new Nations Tournament, which starts in 2026.
Below test level, rugby is a mess. And yet it thrives at the top in many ways.
What will be the full implications of the new tournament, which slots in around the World Cup and Lions tours?
Will it, for example, bring an end to the drift of top New Zealand players to Japanese clubs?
What will the toll on players’ minds and bodies be? How big will the test squads need to be, to cope?
And most importantly, can these mighty contests between the big guns hold their appeal when they are played more regularly in a formal competition?
Brothers Jordie Barrett and Beauden Barrett after winning the quarter-final against Ireland. Photo / Getty Images
WINNER: A game for all sizes
The final act of the South Africa-France game: Faf De Klerk, maybe the smallest man in international rugby, ripped the ball off French prop Reda Wardi.
WINNER: Siya Kolisi
The South African captain’s post-match comments are so deep and meaningful.
This time, Siya Kolisi spoke of South Africa fans “that can’t afford to be here”, and how their support via social-media videos inspires the team.
“We play for a nation,” he said.
There was a time when it was said a lot of impoverished South Africans created by the despicable apartheid system supported the All Blacks.
