RWC 2011

For me it was a good World Cup but not a great one, France was a great RWC despite some average rugby and some dreadful performances/results for Ireland. At the end of this seven week marathon I was really feeling fatigue, it may be a result of the crazy kick off times though. Obviously player welfare must take priority over my domestic arangments though… 

It was good to see the Kiwi's turn out this time for the lesser games. There were still plenty of games where there were blocks of empty seats though which just shoud not happen.

Officiating is the major area for concern, there is still a glaring lack of consistency in the application of the laws across the tounament, as defined by the global witch-hunt of Alain Rolland for his correct appplication of Law 10.4 by an ignorant public. Inconsisten application done a lot of damage to the greater understanding of the game and just increases tensions both on and off the pitch. Paddy O’Brein is culpable for this and I really hope that he is replaced sooner rather than later with a more efficient and trustowrthy candidate…

French will feel dissapointed by yesterdays result as they were the better side for most of the game, Joubert as anticpated only refereed one side during the game and he completely copped out from making any tough decisions. There were at least six high tackles by te Kiwi’s, three of which could definitely have warrented a yellow. But not even a word of caution from Joubert. The reason? If he had cautioned the Kiwi’s then he would have had to card one of them next time around. Never mind offside at virtually every ruck by Brad Thorn who hit the ruck legally intially and then rolled around the side of the ruck. To their credit the French haven’t moaned about Joubert, probably realising that they have had the rub of the green on a few occaions in the past and doing so would detract from what was probaly their best RWC2011 performance somewhat…

If the French are fined for their challenge of the Haka yesterday then I feel the greater rugby communtity should do a collection and pay the resulting fine, how you could possibly fine a team for challenging a warriorr challenge that ends in a throat slitting gesture? Pure maddness that only the the SANZAR ruled IRB could enforce..

To be honest I’m sick and tired of the pandering to the Kiwi’s sensitivites (and if I see another Flashmob Haka ever I’ll spew). But hopefully finally winning a second World Cup and getting a monkey (winning one outside of NZ still remains, Aussies have done two, SA and England one each)) will give the Kiwi’s a litte more perspective, but given their insecurities derived from their geographical isolation it does remain to be seen…

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NZ will lose money as hosts, the iRB demand so much money for the honour of hosting the tournament they're biting off their noses. That can't continue.

I enjoyed it to be honest. The Kiwis put on a great tournament, no trouble at it, no issues at all really. The only complaints were related to the rugby/officiating and that's a very good sign of how well they ran it.
Ummm... you have never seen Ireland fold like that before? Come on... the entire RWC 07 was a gigantic collective fold. I think Ireland have a few major weaknesses that were not sorted out in time and they told come crunch time. Hopefully we can move on from this now and bring a new generation of Irish players to the fore-front in time for RWC 2015.

Re: Rolland, I don't know how wide the witch hunt was but I think that anyone with a modicum of rugby knowledge knows (deep down even the Welsh know) that Rolland was following the rules.