Telegraph Book of the Rugby World Cup by Martin Smith

Author:Martin Smith [Smith, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aurum

7 NOVEMBER

ENOUGH MAGIC TO PAPER OVER THE CRACKS

Paul Ackford

So that’s another World Cup over, then. Bigger commercially than the previous three tournaments and, with twenty nations competing instead of sixteen, more successful in terms of attendances at the live matches, but better? That’s a difficult one. Any competition which produces occasions of the quality of the semi-finals cannot be dismissed lightly. The France versus New Zealand epic was the most glorious evocation of what rugby has to offer. Better than the celebrated Baa-Baas versus All Black encounter of 1973 because that game was essentially an end of tour frolic, while this one had enormous consequences for both teams. Better than the 1995 World Cup final because it created its own drama, whereas the emotional impact of that final had a lot to do with the social and political change taking place in South Africa at the time.

But if rugby wishes to continue to hang on to its claim that it is a global sport, it has to deliver more than the shuddering collisions of the major teams. Take both semi-finals out of the equation, together with England versus New Zealand, France versus Fiji, and Argentina versus Ireland, and the other forty-odd matches were not up to much. Even the quarter-finals, once you strip away the one-eyed nationalism which always adds allure to the knockout stages, were not particularly compelling.

And it is not good enough for Rugby World Cup to point to the achievements of Argentina and Samoa in beating more celebrated opponents, or the exploits of Japan, Spain and Uruguay who competed tolerably well in their groups, as justification for the twenty-team format. Over half the pool games were won by a margin of thirty points and matches on the world stage should be more than about not getting seriously injured or losing with dignity. The attendances in Scotland were shocking for much of the competition but, honestly, would you have fancied paying £30 for Spain versus South Africa at 5 p.m. on a Sunday?

But that gripe aside, plus the ridiculous five host-country arrangement, and the long midweek intervals with no matches followed by a torrent of eight over two days, Rugby World Cup ’99 had much to commend it, not least the manner in which it exposed pundits like me. Never before have so many predictions proved wide of the mark and, if there was some consolation in the ‘I was just one of many’ excuse, there was considerably more satisfaction in what it said about the sport.

France did the rest of their Five Nations mates a real favour in beating the All Blacks because they raised two fingers to all of rugby’s shibboleths. Deprived of their best back, Thomas Castaignède, and their best forward, Christian Califano, and playing the non-tackling Émile Ntamack at centre and Xavier Garbajosa at full-back, they nevertheless pulverised New Zealand. And this coming off one of the worst seasons in their history. France proved that all the training, preparation and coaching in the world

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