WORLD CUP RUGBY: THE FINAL ANALYSIS – 12/11

by Tyrone Smith

South Africa with a Herculean defense, held off a fierce onslaught by the All Blacks, to win their fourth World Cup; becoming the first nation to win four world cups and the second behind New Zealand to win back to back titles!

A gripping final was marred by cards of colour, discolouring what was a titanic tussle for supremacy, between two arch rivals!!!

Going forward, rugby needs to tread carefully!

Cricket has paid the prize and looks to be a no hoper!

Betting scams, match fixing, and a bottomless pit full of corrupt vagaries, have ruined the game of cricket!

World Rugby will have to re-look at how the game is governed! The advent of the Television Match Official (TMO} has led to delayed decisions, confusion and seems to be judged by trigger happy officials, rather than experienced former players!

If a player is cited and found guilty, he faces suspension. The same does not apply to the incompetence of a referee/TMO. Their decisions go unchallenged, while catastrophic reversal in form and progress can affect the team under hammer, leading to an eventual defeat!

Even in cases where the error is blatant and for all to see, there’s no mitigation. Worse still, the flawed outcome stands and doesn’t change! Isn’t this an ideal situation for corruption??? Won’t it lead to match fixing and players crossing the betting divide for underhand luxuries? The game is poised to take a dive that way, unless a stringent look from a respected multi-level, cross functional team of people, that are passionate about the game, happens sooner, rather than later.

If a decision is wrong and when it leads to a questionable outcome, isn’t that result flawed? If one were to agree that it’s flawed, for what reason would you allow it to stand?

With the introduction of the TMO, was not the stipulation, that only play going back two phases will be scrutinized? How come play over two phases get scrutinized now? Have the rules changed?

The TMO is definitely over playing his hand. Its time to recreate the role of the referee, he’s the all-important man in the middle! Stoppages in play will only hamper the sides that play fast open rugby. Time to change! Its time to whiplash the offender, no matter who, with a serious punishment and if the result is fixed and tainted, the offender should be dealt with accordingly and the result reversed appropriately!

When this type of legislature governs the oval game, when credible personalities make up the union, rugby football will be on a pedestal, beyond reach of rolling stones and sides like Fiji will hold their own in close encounters of the first and third kind!

Player safety is paramount but not a pantomime, like played out in the finals!

PHYSICAL INTENT – where does this stand among the disfigured laws of rugby? Should it be severely penalized? Is it not rendering a massive deterrent towards player safety? Why talk of safety and introduce tackle laws that eventuate with cards, red and yellow, when bull charge, high tackles off the Siya Kolisi mould finds mitigation – double standards, amnesia, an injurious fix or plain injustice to the laws pertaining to safety, is how I see it!!!

The game was locked in a battle of defenses- neither quarter asked, neither given!

Kolisi played his heart out, leading from front, even getting “naughty”, for the cause of his people back home in SA!Pieter-Steph du Toit, what a player, relentless to the very end and fittingly the man of the match. Eben Etzebeth just carries on, with no respect for his body or for that of another!!!His hits must surely hurt and shake ones foundations to the bone marrow. South Africa is blessed to play alongside him and not the other way around! Faff turned out a clerky performance, while Handre Pollard continued to amaze!

Pollards exploits were calm and assured, bisecting the posts without blemish. Called up in the seventh hour, having to sit out selection due to injury, his inclusion towards the tail end of the world cup, looked more in line with desperation! With no game time and shoved into the deep end, what a champion he proved himself to be! He reclaimed his ownership of the 10 jersey from a manly Libbok who did justice to the cause and to himself. Yet, cometh the hour cometh the man, the dead center hallmark Pollard!

There was Mbomabi and co, working tirelessly, fearlessly and to a purpose, but met with a resistance from them in black! The boks couldn’t milk a single scrum penalty and were hard pressed to secure their own lineouts!

What a transformation from the All Blacks! From a pounding by the boks at Twickenham to a hounding by the French at the Stade, how they’ve regrouped under the ‘under fire’, Foster, is quite the story of the World Cup!

Even the All Blacks need to kick their penalties and convert their tries – it proved to be the ultimate nail in an unnecessary coffin – four more years, the haunt of George Greegan and not Monte Christo will ring long after the dust has settled…!!!

Despite the result which was not evident until the final blast on Barnes’ whistle, the All Blacks played with gusto! The Smith in black and named Aaron, played his last for the mighty blacks; his efforts were as usual a fillip to the side, a voice that swayed more than a reed. He’ll be sorely missed!

Sam Cane will always get a mention when this final is discussed! It was a sad day for this gentleman rugby player, to sit and watch his team, battling it out with a man down, against the rampant Springboks and what a battle it was. The All Blacks played 62 minutes of the game with 14 players and carried it to the very wire! The grit, the tenacity and the purposefulness of being an Aall Black was clearly very evident and deserve more than three cheers! What’s left for Cane? Hope he continues to ply his trade for both club and country with great distinction! Its only a greater effort, a humongous performance and a sustained consistency throughout the period to be, will ensure a place for Sam Cane, among the greats of the game! Use this faux pax Sam, to stamp your class and leave behind a lasting legacy- adversity brings out the best in champions and not in everyone else!

Every dark cloud has a silver lining! For the blacks, it was Mark Tele’a and the roving Ardie Savea!

Here’s a man playing out of position, switching from seven to eight, making it his own and being adjudged the best player in the world! For a lightweight man in a heavyweights suit, up against giants and to call it his way, getting right to the top, he is both a David and a Goliath rolled into one, they call him Ardie Savea!!! Congratulations champ!!!

Tactically, technically and strategically, how did Ian Foster, Joe Schmidt, Jason Ryan and co. measure up to the innovative Rassie Erasmus, Jacques Nienaber and Co.?? Just a thin line and the difference of a mere point separated them from the cup of gold! The Boks with their bench exploits of a 7/1 split, were met with a well planned resistance! The South Africans were customary to say the least; bombs and bomb squad, set piece onslaughts and the 7-1 bench strength were their forte! The All Blacks embraced a tightened defense, outplayed the Boks in the lineouts, held their own at scrum time and showed periodic signs of their amazing grace, when in full flow, the best sight to behold in rugby!

Possession and territory was controlled to the last digit, but to play a 15 man team game with 14 players was a bridge too far! In the final analysis, a decision(?), a miss and no mitigation was not in the book of All Black strategies for the day- it cost them the cup and a wait of ‘four more years’!!!

Rassie and Co. have two world cups to cheer, while Ian Foster has a one, one, two, three.. Champs in 2011, 2015, Bronze in 2019 and Silver in 2023… the man that got razored out. Will he be a “hard act to follow”? A resilient man, who knew his journey and planned his game accordingly – bravo Ian Foster! Congratulations Rassie Erasmus!!

This brings us to the referee of the final, Wayne Barnes.

How much control did he have of the game? Were decisions taken out of his hand? A referee of huge experience and repute, he should’ve had more authority on the game including some crucial TMO decisions- that’s when his value and experience will have stood counted!

The game when designed and redesigned over a 100 years ago, had margins for error! Humans are prone to trial and error, for as long as its marginal and honest, the misjudgment will be accepted by all and sundry!

Congratulations South Africa, commiserations New Zealand! Thank you for a rip-roaring final!!!

Tyrone Smith
Kandy/Sri Lanka

About the Author….

Tyrone Smith is a Strong, outgoing, and proactive Marketing leader with a demonstrated history of success in supporting clients with innovative marketing strategies and organizational skills.