The best team won

Well it wasn't to be was it? It would have been a bit of a travesty if a well oiled machine like South Africa had lost to a group of 22 thrown together over the last few weeks, despite the fact I was of course willing it to happen. South Africa deserved their win and an interesting stat I saw (but can't remember exactly!) showed that England had scored 12 tries in the WC, compared to late twenties for South Africa - 28 I think.

Another set of stats that it would be interesting to review is the lineout. Matfield was clear man-of-the-match - not only did he dominate the lineout, with the help of some accurate throwing in, but he also made the tackle on Tait that pulled him down just short of the line, before the ball went out to Cueto who narrowly failed to score. That was as close as we came to a try, but I'm not sure if I agree with the Syd Millar, the IRB Chairman, who is suggesting that rule changes are required to make the game more interesting.

One thing that seemed interesting in the knock-out stages, and particularly in the SA v Argentina semi-final was the fact that scores mostly came from turnovers. So to make it difficult for players without the ball to challenge at the breakdown wouldn't seem to be the way to go for me, that is a brilliant skill and one that is vital to the game. But without changing the rules of the game, what about considering the number of points scored for say, an interception try. Could an argument be made for reducing the number of points scored for an interception try to 2, with the conversion to follow? Sides could therefore be a little happier to move the ball wide, knowing that if the ball is intercepted and someone runs the length, it is less of a match-changing catastrophe.

Getting back to the final, I'm not sure why there is all the controversy about the "try". From the angle looking from behind Cueto, his foot looked clearly in touch, so unless there is another angle that I haven't seen, there was no doubt whatsoever. A triumph for the fact that technology was used as a wrong decision could have altered who were the eventual World Champions. Cueto's comments seem strange to me - he was quoted as saying that he will always feel that he scored a try in the World Cup final....clearly he didn't! Given that no-one seems to question the use of technology to check on the act of the try being scored, I hope that this is extended to look at the whole move in the lead up to the try - if that had been the case New Zealand would have gone through against France.

Still - a great tournament. And England got to the final - not even the most one-eyed Englishman would have dared predict that before the tournament.