A point that made a point
24 Oct 2011
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day newspaper column, applauds New Zealand’s defensive effort in the World Cup final.
France earned the respect of all New Zealanders and the All Blacks surely earned the respect of the rugby world.
You cannot begrudge the All Blacks their moment, and you also cannot deny captain Richie McCaw his finest 80 minutes as an international player. He is finally a world champion.
France captain Thierry Dusautoir was the player of the match but it was the player of the past decade (McCaw) who got gold on the night.
Some may say the rugby gods have a heart, especially if you remember McCaw’s night — and face — at the 2007 World Cup in Cardiff four years ago when France beat the All Blacks 20-18.
McCaw and the All Blacks deserved the win. Not just because of their defensive effort on the night, but because of what they have dealt with at this tournament — expectation, pressure and injury setbacks.
Home-ground advantage is big in any tournament but in World Cups it has been a curse. New Zealand are the first host nation to win the World Cup in the professional era and they did it with their fourth choice at flyhalf, Stephen Donald, for the final 45 minutes.
They did it without Dan Carter and they did it with McCaw playing the entire tournament with a foot injury that will require surgery.
It is easy to forget the obstacles New Zealand had to overcome because of France’s effort but it would be doing the defensive quality of this final a disservice.
France had offered nothing at this tournament. They had been awful and had been beaten twice in the league stages. They were told they were a disgrace to the romance of French rugby and the World Cup heroics of their predecessors. But they are France and with the French you never know who gets out of bed, let alone who pitches up to play a game of rugby.
They are also players who believe the only rugby experience better than playing the All Blacks is beating them. I can’t applaud their effort enough. Then again neither can I that of the All Blacks.
France’s intensity spooked the All Blacks four years ago, but this time New Zealand were prepared for the physicality of France, and to a man they backed their defensive system and backed the bloke on the inside and the outside to make his tackle. This is a team that trusted in each other as much as each guy did himself.
France were monstrous in the collisions. Dusautoir played the game of his life. France played more intelligently than they have all tournament, and like a team with a plan.
France played from set piece to set piece, limited idiotic decision-making in their own half and played like a team with the belief that they could strangle New Zealand up front and outkick them.
This was raw passion from France. They played for their honour, their dignity and the right to be World Cup champions, but they never had the attacking threat to match either the power of their pack or the intent of their minds. It has been their Achilles heel all tournament.
The All Blacks in the professional era have always been accused of not respecting winning ugly. They did that at Eden Park and their defensive effort was monumental.
France will get many accolades because they defied the belief that the All Blacks would win easily, but if the adage is true that World Cups are won on defence, then New Zealand are deserved winners.
There were heroes on both sides and thankfully no villains, even though All Black Piri Weepu would probably have had to emigrate if France had been the champions.
Weepu missed two penalties, a conversion and kick-started France’s solitary try with a chip kick that landed in a French hand and ended in seven points for France.
He also suffered at the base of the scrum because of the French effort, more than the New Zealand lack of effort, but when the battered All Black forwards had to produce their biggest effort of the last four years they did so in the last four minutes of the World Cup final. They kept the ball for three minutes, forced the penalty and won the game that for the people of New Zealand was so much more than a rugby result.
And it was as if the rugby gods were reminding all of New Zealand about humility. New Zealand would win it by a point to make a point.
Crushing the French would have resulted in New Zealand arrogance and perhaps another 24-year wait for the gold cup.
But to be in Auckland last night was to know there was nothing blasé about this New Zealand celebration.
There was just relief and recognition that attack wins you the Tri-Nations but defence wins you the World Cup.
464 Comments
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24 Oct 2011, 21:28 pm
@JL1(JL1)-235: lol. I will add for free.
My Team of the Rigged World Cup (Revised)
15. Dagg
14. O Connor
13. Bosch
12. Roberts
11. North
10. Carter
9. Phillips
8. Harinord
7. Schalk
6. Pocock
5. Matfield
4. Nallet
3. Mas
2. Bismarck
1. Gurthro
24 Oct 2011, 21:36 pm
@dook(dook)-248: Aha, so it should read d o o s
24 Oct 2011, 21:37 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-251: You sure? No gold watch or preferred treatment?
24 Oct 2011, 21:38 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-251: Tell what I will do for you and your team, arrange a straight path to the semi finals, for that team, yep, that is what I will do
24 Oct 2011, 21:49 pm
@JL1(JL1)-254: The path of Champions… The WWE path?
Yessplease!
24 Oct 2011, 21:49 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-250:lmao
i can’t stop laughing at “we our own” bwahahahaha
there are sooooo many characters on this blog.
24 Oct 2011, 21:50 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-255: Tell you what, with that I will also throw in 4 refs for you, 1 ***, 1 crooked and 2 incompetent ones
24 Oct 2011, 21:51 pm
RT @being_roy_keane:
Texted SAF after the match,
slammed team’s display and
warned him RK’s waiting in the
wings. ‘F_uck off you pampered w_anker,’ came the reply.
roy keane is a funny dude!
24 Oct 2011, 21:54 pm
@JL1(JL1)-257: Yup, the WWE path… A definite… But howzabout rigging who’s who in the pools too…
24 Oct 2011, 21:58 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-259: Oh, easy peasy, lemon squeezy
After 6 RWCs we will now change to rankings instead of how teams finish at the previous RwC,howzat for you?
24 Oct 2011, 22:03 pm
OK, maybe I am going bonkers. We do eat our own!
24 Oct 2011, 22:04 pm
@JL1(JL1)-260: Thats it. Now you doing the stuff… Please ensure that the comp happens in the country of my choosing come hellorhigh water… Rain, wind or shine… whether one man and his dog comes to a couple of the matches… I don’t farken care… I want my “revenge” and I don’t give a fark what happens to rugby as a result…
A couple of re-interpretation of the laws wouldn’t go amiss either.
Thankyouverymuch.
24 Oct 2011, 22:04 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-261: We eat our girls
24 Oct 2011, 22:07 pm
Look its true France were robbed… anyone that can’t see that are just simply either blind or screwed in the head…
Paddy ‘O and Henry wanted Joubert for the final because they knew they could rely on him not to rock the boat and bring the carrot home if France had any other ideas and came to play and stepped up to the plate…
AB’s tried to put daylight between themselves and France through first half.. at one point it seemed it might happen and then it all went south at some rate of knots…
Donald came on with his huge bravado like he was going to be the AB messiah on the night and kicked a gimme penalty which was a 50/50 call at best and a gift from Craig to Richie at worst to get their show on the road and get some daylight between them and the tenacious French…
The Duck obliged and AB’s thought here we are its now pretty much a done deal..
From the resultant kick off France decided otherwise.. they chucked the kitchen sink and Piri the Weepy Ou hacked a kick through loose ball into Mermoz hands and few phases later Rougerie sent captain Dusoutoir through under the sticks for a 7 pointer…
At that point the choke was well and truly on and AB’s couldn’t actually believe it was HAPPENING AGAIN !!!
From then on they hardly saw the ball or visited French territory, it became a frantic scramble for face saving survival from minute 48 to 75.. France were all over the indestructible AB’s like a virus, Harinorduquay, Dusoutoir and Bonnaire grew like giants in stature while contrarily McCaw, Kaino and Read subsequently became reduced to damage limitation operatives at the breakdown.
Rougerie and Mermoz were having a field day through the midfield and busting through Nonu and Smith with punitive ease while Yachvili and Trinh Duc were having their way with Weepu, Ellis and Donald.
AB’s were on the rack and it showed to such extent they were being rattled and manhandled like rag dolls at the jaws of a tenacious pack of pit bull terriers…
The dreaded choke was transpiring before their gaping minds and the rugby worlds disbelieving eyes..
So what to do when the inevitable is staring you in the face and you going down to your familiar nemesis once more again..? resort to despair and go for broke and play the illegal sealing and illegitimate contesting off feet at breakdown limit and pray the gods of mercy will abide and turn a blind eye this time…
Into the breach steps Craig Joubert.. he allows numerous illegal ruck ball contests before his eyes including high tackles and scrum infringements to go unpunished all within strike range of AB goal posts and France get blown out the last man standing contest and AB’s get out of jail…
Was simply too great a precipice to send the IRB darlings down and Craig Joubert could not see himself as the catalysis that would end the IRB fairy tale.. so he obliged.. he turned a blind eye and allowed the Richie in Wonderland hatched story to have its desired end… at the cost of fair play and integrity and at the cost of the bitter and sold out double dealt French…
24 Oct 2011, 22:10 pm
gonna watch a repeat of this game on SABC 2 and give my review and findings from another glance at the episode that turned into a Craig Joubert and IRB inspired gift to the hosts..
24 Oct 2011, 22:11 pm
Can there be any doubt now that Piet Van Zyl is the rule rather than an exception?
24 Oct 2011, 22:11 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-262: Special discount then for you to host this RWC, not the obscene amounts that I charge France or England to host the Cup, a special price for you
How does that sound?
I wil also get my mate, Paddy, to sort out these laws.I can change the laws to suit you anytime, if you catch my drift
What about the ball?should not have a new ball design that no man and his dog can kick with, well maybe those damn Saffas will nt master this ball in time
24 Oct 2011, 22:15 pm
must say this Hayley W chick NZ anthem singer is one beautiful specimen of womanhood
24 Oct 2011, 22:17 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-268: She is a stunner
24 Oct 2011, 22:22 pm
@JL1(JL1)-267: What about commentators.Joel Stransky is anti SA enough to qualify??I just cant stand neutral commentators.Can you make sure we get the bias of the bias?
24 Oct 2011, 22:25 pm
@JL1(JL1)-267: Fark the Saffa’s – SARU will fark them up all by themselves and they are almost as up and down as the French… But it is wise to have a contingency plan…
The Ball is a master stroke.
24 Oct 2011, 22:28 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-264: Hellsteeth. This truly is The End of History.
I farken agree and reckon that this is the definitive post of the RWC 2011 final… 100 times better than Keo or his muppets could ever muster… Farkenbloodynice!
24 Oct 2011, 22:28 pm
And all we heard from SA last week as how Joubert was the best ref in the world.
Fark you lot change your mind. If it doesnt suit SA, then its just not worth is it?
Heavens Game: The ONLY RWC the was rigged was 1995, Frances disallowed try in Durban, the Gold Watch, the suzie thing, – it just goes to show you can spin anything you want.
24 Oct 2011, 22:30 pm
@optiplay(optiplay)-270: Ok, ok, you demand a lot, but this one is on special,a real bogof,so what we will do is the following
Studio guests Francois Pienaar, he likes to suck up to others
Jonathan Davies and Jeremy Guscott for a reall one eyed Jack view
Side pitch reports from Phil Kearns, live comments by…..yes you guessed it Joel Stransky and Gareth Thomas
24 Oct 2011, 22:30 pm
@KiaKahaNZ(KiaKahaNZ)-273: Go away.!We enjoying ourselves. Don”t a WC to play with.
24 Oct 2011, 22:31 pm
@JL1(JL1)-274: You are on fire
24 Oct 2011, 22:32 pm
This proves gentlemen prefer blondes.
Lotsa salivating.
24 Oct 2011, 22:35 pm
@KiaKahaNZ(KiaKahaNZ)-273: “how Joubert was the best ref in the world.”…. Not from me. Full stop.
And SA’s disallowed try in the final… scored by Ruben the Legend or do you forget?
You okes are number 1… There I say it.
Your AB’s are World Champs… For once you won’t have a bunch ofcunts in the antipodes disputing that the World Champs and World No 1′s are not the same thing…
But I tell you one thing – the World Champs were fcked up silly in the World Cup Final… They were brutalised, battered and made to look quite ordinary compared to their opponents…
And that is undeniable.
24 Oct 2011, 22:35 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-271: Now you must remember that halfway through the tournament when things are not looking like they are working out or if the opponents are building some momentum then do the following:
Announce at a press conference that if you do not get more money ( or the RWC, wink, wink) then you will not play in the next RWC
24 Oct 2011, 22:39 pm
@JL1(JL1)-279: LOL
24 Oct 2011, 22:40 pm
@JL1(JL1)-279: The throw the toys out of the cot option!
Farken genius.
Yes, because we are entitled to everything in Rugby… Even thought the shortfall is part and parcel due to the WC not earning enough revenue in the first place…
Absolute Genius!
24 Oct 2011, 22:42 pm
@optiplay(optiplay)-280: You exchange a vote for the RWC 2011
New Zealand!, They sucked up to Ireland to get their deciding vote, horse trading
This thing,this little precious, this WWE, will still not get bums on seats and halt the decline in rugby in New Zealand
24 Oct 2011, 22:44 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-281: It is after all my bat and my ball, I am New Nealand and the world owes me, remember
24 Oct 2011, 22:45 pm
Jeez, one of my funniest recollections of the final was Rougerie running over Smith and then Sunny Bowel coming in with a trademark shoulder charge and just bouncing off, ineffective…
Schweet.
24 Oct 2011, 22:46 pm
@JL1(JL1)-283: Yes. Its my “revenge” to be had for been so hard done by…
24 Oct 2011, 22:50 pm
So let me run through your shopping lis:
Host country, home games, check
Pools arrangement, check
Special balls, check
New laws, check
Dodgy refs, check
Toys out of the cot, check
One eyed commentators and hats, check
Did I miss anything?
24 Oct 2011, 22:53 pm
@JL1(JL1)-286: Yes. It has to be obligatory for everyone who is anyone to state that it is the “Best World Cup Ever” and facts be damned.
Also if an opposing team puts one wrong foot forward and actually is stupid enough to advance on my team’s haka then we fine the living daylights out of them.
24 Oct 2011, 22:57 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-264: skop, you take what you can get away with. the following is as close as you will get to the ABs admitting their fortune late in that game.
kaino plays it smart
here was a moment late in the
World Cup final at Eden Park on
Sunday night when Jerome Kaino
thought about a daring raid on
some prime French ruck ball.
But then the impressive New
Zealand blindside flanker
computed the field position, the
stage of the game and the score.
In essence, if he’d been pinged by
referee Craig Joubert he could
have given up the penalty that
handed the World Cup to France.
So Kaino resisted the urge to
swoop, kept his hands clean and
relied on his team-mates to
continue making tackles.
It was a decision typical of this
mature New Zealand effort as
Richie McCaw and his men ground
out an 8-7 victory that saw them
absorb a mountain of pressure
from the French in the second
half.
Graham Henry admitted
afterwards that it was a final his
team probably would not have
won four years ago. But this group
is made of stern stuff, and
decisions like Kaino’s have now
become the norm.
“That could have turned ball over
but not hearing the ref, not
knowing what was going on, if I
was legal or not, I thought I’d just
leave it alone because I didn’t
want a penalty in front of the
posts,” he said.
Asked if he could have lived with
himself had he given up a defining
score like that, Kaino could only
smile knowingly.
“I don’t think I could have. I would
have had to move somewhere
they don’t know me.”
The Auckland flanker has been a
master presence fom
24 Oct 2011, 22:59 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-287: How dare they!!
It is our marketing trick and that is how we gain more fans, Sacre Bleu, those insolent French rugby players
I will make sure they pay for that, at least £10 000, how does that sound, and to make sure it all looks above board, I will arrange that a French player gets the award fro the best player of the year
24 Oct 2011, 23:02 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-287: Hey, but it was the best RwC ever, was it not?
24 Oct 2011, 23:02 pm
what the above post does not say skop is that kaino lost his footing as his right knee touched the turf, he found his feet again, saw the ball between the french players legs – ruck formed – picked it up & knocked it on. next thing craig is waiving his arms “ball is out” & ABs are contesting and french momentum is lost.kaino can indeed consider himself lucky!
24 Oct 2011, 23:04 pm
@JL1(JL1)-289: Yeah, but it all seems a bit petty and obvious…. Bah, I’m sure the players will contribute from their match fee with pleasure to pay that fine. Naah, for me that is where I diverge from the blueprint… I will rather ban the offending team for 6 months at least.
And I want it all – Best Player of the year is for one of MY team members… It is my goddammed entitlement.
24 Oct 2011, 23:06 pm
@JL1(JL1)-290: Yes it was… Help me with how to justify why it is… Maybe higher TV audience in Australia?
24 Oct 2011, 23:07 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-292: My but you drive a hard bargain
Ok advancing team banned for 6 months and the Hakak gets copyright.
Player of the year will from a list of six, all from NZ
24 Oct 2011, 23:11 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-293: It was because you sold 400 000 tickets less than in 2007 RWC, and viewership in Europe was down compared to 2007
And tourists were also down from 500 000 in 2007 to a mere 90 000 in 2011. So all in all great RWC
You did I’ve the locals a warm fuzzy feeling though and free drinks to all the journos
24 Oct 2011, 23:13 pm
@JL1(JL1)-294: Either 6 months or a fine that covers the 12 mill shortfall as a consequence of MY team competing in MY tournament… That’ll farken teach them.
Yes, you have the player of the year nominees just about right.
And one more thing… From now on the Webb Ellis Cup never leaves Godsown, no matter who wins any future Rigged World Cups… It is our precccciousssss… Other “winners” can have a small copy, like the Ashes trophy…
24 Oct 2011, 23:18 pm
latest out of nz:mccaw was eye-gouged by french players & IRB player if the year recipient thierry dusautoir was french player close by.
24 Oct 2011, 23:21 pm
@JL1(JL1)-295: Fckright! The Best World Cup Ever, I tell you… It must be continually repeated… enough times, and it may be thought of as gospel truth.
We also need a movie made of the World Cup like the one of the stupid yarpies… Maybe Robert De Niro as Piri-Piri Weepu, the Rock as Kaino, Al Pacino as Graham Henry, Jason Donovan as Brad Thorne (He is tall) and Dustin Hoffman as Ritchie (They both have Club foot)… The movie will be directed by Pierre Woodman…
Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood are banned from being involved or even allowed in the country because they made a movie of a far inferior World Cup…
24 Oct 2011, 23:23 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-298: Rocco Siffredi can be the ref in this movie… Nobody screws anyone better.
24 Oct 2011, 23:24 pm
This is why the ABs had to win
Equally, the $30 million shortfall in expected ticket sales will seem to the average person a cue to strike some discount deals. But the IRB is not attuned to the concept. Given this organisation is so hard-nosed, it even expected to be able to dictate what colour T-shirts our volunteer hosts will wear (that we, not the IRB, would pay for), we can expect no quarter to be given on the financial front.
None of which is the fault of any politician. On the contrary, there would have been a popular uprising had the previous Government said no to hosting the RWC. But it is an ugly position for any Government to be in – essentially in the power of a commercially focused, fantastically wealthy and utterly unsentimental sporting franchise. (And let’s not overlook that Labour – again inadvertently – saddled this Government with a contractual obligation to give Team New Zealand $36 million for the next America’s Cup bid.)
The political risk may be marginalised by the infectious hoopla about to erupt. Prime Minister John Key’s perma-photo-op life will move to a new gear, with not just sports stars, but legions of world statespeople and celebs likely to waft into shoulder-rubbing orbit. It’s possible British Prime Minister David Cameron and French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy could head this way, among other luminaries – United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon already having been confirmed. But this happy hobnobbing could come in unfortunate juxtaposition if ugliness flares over price-gouging, or monstering of harmless small-business proprietors.
And although it’s probably not widely realised, the honour of hosting such tournaments is rarely matched by the riches. What taxpayers are shelling out is not even close to being offset by the wealth the event is likely to generate.
The Reserve Bank is sticking with its estimate of $700 million in extra spending, which sounds like a bonanza. But the other side of the ledger is the crowding-out of other tourists’ spending, and all the extra money that will have been spent on imported goods to service the extra tourist influx. The cost to the taxpayer is officially estimated to be over $300 million, and there is no way the revenue generated far and wide by the event will find its way directly back to the taxpayer in any meaningful quantities. Ticket sales are expected to return well over $200 million – but not to us. The cost to Auckland ratepayers alone will have topped $100 million by the close of play – notwithstanding “unforeseen circumstances”.
Although hotels, restaurants, cafes, taxis and shops will experience a boom and thereby pay more GST and income tax, the money-go-round is more centrifugal in impact than circular. The Government will be out of pocket for the cost of a bloody great party, at the very time it is axing jobs, cutting budgets and tightening the screws on beneficiaries, and asking to be re-elected. Again, not its fault, and no reasonable person could propose the counterfactual, of a “no thanks” to the event back in 2005. But horrible, horrible timing.
And that’s not even factoring in the worst-case scenario. A loss. To Australia. We’d all be wearing black if that happened, including the sponsors. Key blithely assures us research has found no correlation between governmental fortunes and major sports tournament results worldwide. But there is madness in the air. It is now possible to buy “limited edition!” nappies with All Blacks logos on. You don’t have to be a Wiccan to worry that is tempting fate with unfortunate symbolism.
Can anything be ruled out? Surely a case can be made for holding the Government responsible for an All Blacks loss – perhaps because it has fostered the kind of society in which $200-plus replica jerseys, abstinence campaigns and Sonny Bill Williams are possible?
This writer will be as dippy and doting as the next person when the event is under way. But it’s going to be hard to forget the feeling of being had rather cheaply over the IRB’s revelation there are in fact two William Webb Ellis trophies, of identical manufacture and equal status. This is like finding out there have secretly been two Koh-i-noor diamonds all along, or a spare Shroud of Turin; or that the statue of David has a body double. At that rate, I vote we tell the world that was Sean Fitzpatrick’s evil twin in the obscene pink thing.
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