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Well, THAT sucked.
It's rather strange to see but with the exception of New Zealand, who much as it pains me to say, are playing glorious rugby, the rest of the people who made it through from the quarters and semis were, well, frankly, a bit shit.
Firstly the quarters:
- Ireland v. Wales was a good game, a disappointing result for me, but I can't begrudge the Welsh a great win and I had high hopes for them
- England v. France - Both sides were just bloody awful and the least blood awful got through
- Australia v. South Africa - this was a horrific game and result, not least of which for some of the most egregiously bad refereeing I've seen at this level. Bad decisions went both ways, but on balance Bryce Lawrence was blind to slew of professional fouls towards the end which robbed South Africa of several penalty chances. His worst mistakes, allowing dangerous tackles with a boys will be boys grin, and completely ignoring hands in the ruck
- New Zealand v. Argentina - lovely first half, the Pumas did a hell of a job, but in the end the All Blacks were too much
Semis...
Wales v. France - the worst team won. That was clear. The major point being a questionable refereeing decision in the 18th minute which had the Welsh Captain sent off. Now, what he did was inexcusable and dangerous, but a Red Card in a semi-final? No - really inappropriate. There was no malice involved, the French played things up and it ought to have been a Yellow. After that the Welsh were always in trouble - at that level of rugby the conventional wisdom is the team with 14 men lose 4-5 points for every 10 minutes they're down a man. The welsh held on but couldn't overcome the defense with too few men
New Zealand v. Australia - really never going to be much of a game, I suspected the All Blacks would be unstoppable at home and they were. They comprehensively outplayed in the Australians.
So, final? A rerun of 1987, New Zealand by 10 or more points.
It's rather strange to see but with the exception of New Zealand, who much as it pains me to say, are playing glorious rugby, the rest of the people who made it through from the quarters and semis were, well, frankly, a bit shit.
Firstly the quarters:
- Ireland v. Wales was a good game, a disappointing result for me, but I can't begrudge the Welsh a great win and I had high hopes for them
- England v. France - Both sides were just bloody awful and the least blood awful got through
- Australia v. South Africa - this was a horrific game and result, not least of which for some of the most egregiously bad refereeing I've seen at this level. Bad decisions went both ways, but on balance Bryce Lawrence was blind to slew of professional fouls towards the end which robbed South Africa of several penalty chances. His worst mistakes, allowing dangerous tackles with a boys will be boys grin, and completely ignoring hands in the ruck
- New Zealand v. Argentina - lovely first half, the Pumas did a hell of a job, but in the end the All Blacks were too much
Semis...
Wales v. France - the worst team won. That was clear. The major point being a questionable refereeing decision in the 18th minute which had the Welsh Captain sent off. Now, what he did was inexcusable and dangerous, but a Red Card in a semi-final? No - really inappropriate. There was no malice involved, the French played things up and it ought to have been a Yellow. After that the Welsh were always in trouble - at that level of rugby the conventional wisdom is the team with 14 men lose 4-5 points for every 10 minutes they're down a man. The welsh held on but couldn't overcome the defense with too few men
New Zealand v. Australia - really never going to be much of a game, I suspected the All Blacks would be unstoppable at home and they were. They comprehensively outplayed in the Australians.
So, final? A rerun of 1987, New Zealand by 10 or more points.
