Monday 24 October 2011
A Few Words On The Rugby World Cup
Now that we've won the RWC, I can make a few comments without sounding like a sore loser.The RWC knock-out format means that the result is largely determined by luck --- more precisely, factors beyond the control of the winning team. The All Blacks were lucky to win last night. France were unlucky to lose, but were lucky to make the final at all.
It makes no sense for commenters to ascribe victory to "destiny", "will to win" etc when France could have won with a penalty kick that they simply missed.
I like watching rugby, but the subjectiveness of referring is a great flaw in the game. Ideally a game should not only be fair, but should be clearly seen to be fair. Rugby is seldom the latter.
I think all NZ supporters should sympathise with French supporters who feel they were cheated by the referee. Most of us know how they feel, from 2007.
The All Blacks choked. They still managed to win the game (luckily, see above), but it was clear they crumbled under the pressure, at least some of them did. It was surprising since it seemed that last week's game against Australia was higher-pressure.
I hope success at this World Cup doesn't obscure the lessons that should be learned for the next one from this near-disastrous performance.
I really enjoyed the game and I'm glad we won, but I think I could even have enjoyed it if the French had won, as I earlier pledged.
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