Winston Aldworth: We're winners at something, at least ...

Opinion

We might be lousy at winning the damn thing, but as a nation New Zealand is getting very good indeed at picking over the entrails of a disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign.

In fact, our Rugby World Cup Disaster Post Mortems are second to none. So talented and experienced are we in this burgeoning field that we could soon be exporting some of our best young RWCDPMs - still at the peak of their powers and with much to offer their nation - to European clubs. There they will be used to explain failure on some muddy field in the Heineken Cup, whilst complaining of the constant glare of media attention back home.

One can wade through the clauses, subclauses, footnotes and parentheses, or simply rely upon the two-decades-honed Kiwi knack for apportioning RWC Disaster blame.

Jock Hobbs himself reassured us yesterday that "key stakeholders" told him it wasn't his fault. So the armchair pathologist can apportion the chunk of blame otherwise tagged for Hobbs to those self-same "key stakeholders".

Likewise Graham Henry, the bloke reappointed to a job four months before the in-depth analysis of how he's done the job. As blameless as a saint.

Henry, the report reveals, sent out a message with 10 minutes left in the match calling for a drop goal to be taken. The message never got through - so let's blame the messenger.

Wayne Barnes, who blew his whistle to Aotearoan infamy on that October night, cops a bit of flak in the report. As do the linesmen. Dunces all.

Detailed reading between the lines of the NZRU's report produces the following Blame-O-Meter: