KEY POINTS:
Moving on from New Zealand's shock loss to France in the quarter-finals of last year's Rugby World Cup isn't easy.
The match hove back into focus this month when Wayne Barnes, the referee on that sorry Cardiff day, returned to control an All Black test.
This week, it was again centre-stage when the New Zealand coach Graham Henry won a top international fair play award for his conduct after the loss.
The International Committee for Fair Play, an international non-governmental organisation recognised by the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee, praised Henry's dignity in going straight to the French dressing room to congratulate the winners and then refusing to publicly criticise Barnes' performance.
It is a remarkable plaudit, given the many examples of outstanding sportsmanship that must have occurred on fields of play during the past year. It also offers a telling judgment on the outcome of the Cardiff game.
Barnes missed a forward pass in the lead-up to France's match-winning try and failed to penalise a back-pedalling French side during the entire second half.
By inference, the committee is pointing to what it expected the vast majority of coaches would have done when confronted by such obviously poor officiating. Or, perhaps, what many a coach would have done had their hot-favourite team performed so ineptly on such a big day.
The committee, in handing the Pierre de Coubertin Trophy to Henry, implies the coach had good cause to feel aggrieved.
Fair play awards are not given to coaches who act as he did after their teams have had a decent crack of the whip.
They go to those who have shown dignity under provocation.
Here is an independent view that the World Cup quarter-final was such an occasion.
