RWC 2015 – yes, maybe the best ever

69653Through accident rather than design, World Cups represent a watershed of sorts for rugby.

Whether in playing style or shifts in power, or even portending a move to professionalism, as 1995 did, the tournament is inevitably a turning point.

This one is no different. Thanks in the main to Japan’s stirring performances, the old boys’ club is in danger of crumbling. We’ve always spoken patronisingly of the emergence of the minnows, but 2015 finally gave meaty impetus to those claims.

Japan were the best technically coached team at the Cup, as they proved in devastating fashion against South Africa. Even now, not enough has been said about that extraordinary upset. They are the best passers in the game, superior to New Zealand even, and they produced the most dynamic and effective mauling in the World Cup.

A shattered Heyneke Meyer predicted more upsets of the Japanese type, but there weren’t. Samoa gave Scotland hell, Georgia even frightened the All Blacks and Fiji and Romania had their moments, but there was no other breakthrough game.

But the minnows have unquestionably got their act together. Foreign coaches have left their mark and a significant lift in fitness has evened things up. Should this trajectory be maintained, it won’t be long before upsets become more common, not least when Japan host the next World Cup. You wouldn’t want to be in a group with them.

The one thing that hasn’t changed is the scheduling of the matches and the disciplinary verdicts. Tier Two nations are hard done by. Case in point: the stark difference in punishments meted out to Alesana Tuilagi and Sean O’Brien. Guess who copped the harsher ban, the Samoan or the Irishman?

The more teams at rugby’s top table, the stronger the game will be. Now let’s wait and see which major nation next hosts a Test or two against one of the lightweights.

What’s also caught on in this edition of the World Cup is the rolling maul. It’s not just that we’re seeing more of it; everyone is using it as a weapon. It used to be South Africa’s prime attacking force, and remains a potent bludgeon, but other countries have caught on.

The trouble with the rolling maul is that it’s predictable and it looks inherently wrong, probably because it so obviously condones legalised obstruction. The fair contest thus goes out the window, particularly as it is so difficult to legally contest.

It’s disappointing that just four matches remain of the 48. The rugby has been so compelling, so hard fought, that I’ve fallen in love with the game again. The Samoa-Scotland match was a belter, but for raw ferocity Ireland against France was off the charts. The physical battering Pascal Pape and Louis Picamoles dished out bordered on assault, and it was sensational.

Wales against Australia was no less intense and the 13-man stand by the Wallabies will go down in rugby lore.

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It was disappointing, of course, that England left the party 16 days after it began, thanks to the ridiculous pool groupings. Their reputation took a beating, but the country went up in my estimation as a host. The pool stages were attended by a staggering 1,8 million people and yesterday’s quarterfinals were jam-packed. As far as a vehicle for marketing the great game, the World Cup has been a stirring affair.

Some are proclaiming it the best already, among them World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper. No World Cup could ever match the emotional cachet of South Africa in 1995, but for organisation, support, atmosphere and revelry, the 2015 edition may well be the best World Cup of them all. It’s been a blast, even from afar.

Worryingly, the tournament also reminded us of the uncomfortably high rate of attrition suffered by top-end players. The game is more relentless than ever and demands more physically than at any time in its history. Great players, chief among them Jean de Villiers and Paul O’Connell, were felled by this reality and it robbed the event of some of its appeal.

But the good far outweighs the bad. RWC 2015 has had everything: tension, excitement, shocks, Mamuka Gorgodze, brotherhood, beer. Even a yellow card for Richie McCaw.

Brilliant. – © Sunday Tribune