There was no joy in Mudville (RWC VI)

France 20, New Zealand 18

As I'm going to have to suffer through the post mortems to the All Blacks quarter final loss to France until the next World Cup in 2011, I thought I'd get mine in early and then go invest in a large pair of noise canceling headphones.

There is no doubt that the better team lost. But, they weren't beaten so much as they failed to win. One of the persistent failings of the All Blacks is a certain arrogance in their play. When it's clear that they are winning the close physical battles, the war of attrition, they persist in trying to land the knock out punch. Of course, to stretch the analogy to breaking point, that opens up their defenses, and gives the dominated opponent the chance to retaliate.

It's an unfortunate Kiwi tendency to blame the referee for every loss, and one that I try very hard to resist. But, in this case, there's no doubt that he played a huge part. Rugby, more than any other competitive sport, is a game where the referee is very influential, partly because the rules, particularly those governing the ruck (that bit where everyone is on the ground scrambling for the ball) are hugely technical. And the refereeing in this game was, to put it kindly, inept. In the first half, he persistently penalized the All Blacks in the breakdown, taking away their dominance there. Then, in the second half he gave a 10 minute penalty to Luke McAlister because a French player ran into him and then did an Oscar-worthy dive. Short handed, the All Blacks were threatening the French line, and the French were persistently offside on the blind side, not called. And finally of course, the pass that set up the winning French try was blatantly forward. And that's not all.

But, enough about the referee. The All Blacks seemed to have a pretty good game plan in the first half, aiming at playing for territory and using their (surprising) superiority in the lineout. But the kicks weren't reaching touch, so for the most part it came to naught. With a decent advantage, that knock out punch mentality took over. Silly passes, silly kicks, and the French got a heartening penalty to finish the half.

Enough of all that, time to go wash the ashes out of my mouth.

The police are at the door (RWC IV)

And they're asking questions about my failure to post concerning the All Blacks/Portugal game. Well, as expected it was pretty much a non event, the All Blacks 108-13 win representing roughly an expected score (some local optimists had been talking about 150 or 200 but realistically that was never going to happen). To their credit, Portugal put in a pretty good 15 to 20 minutes in each half, before exhaustion set in and the AB's scored at will.

Just watched Scotland beat Romania 42-0. A fairly workmanlike but not entirely convincing performance. Especially if, as expected, Scotland rest some of their top players against the AB's, their match this weekend may not have much to recommend it.

Ah, it's not the police after all, it's my taxi. I'm off to the North Island for 10 days of bridge. Probably no updates at this end over that period.

Swing low, sweet chariot (RWC III)

England's rugby chariot must be riding low indeed after an inept performance by the current world cup holders resulted in a 36-0 drubbing by South Africa. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising to see them miss the knock out phase of the competition as they are by no means a lock to beat Samoa.

Too easy (RWC II)

All Blacks: 76
Italy: 14

I have a confession to make.

I watched this game on tape delay. There are a lot of things I'll do that start at 2345, well some things, well perhaps a few things. But, it turns out that watching a game which was always due to be a blow out in favour of the All Blacks isn't one of them.

The worrying thing is that Italy are the second or third best team in New Zealand's pool, so it looks like the All Blacks won't get any sort of a reasonable test until the quarter finals. However, that said, they put out a pretty well disciplined performance, only getting a bit care free and sloppy late in the second half.

Ruby World Cup I

Blogging from New Zealand as I do, I am actually under a legal obligation to cover the Rugby World Cup in detail, regardless of the notional subject of this blog. So, here we go:

The Rugby World Cup kicked off today (I should further mention at this point that part of the obligation requires me to use cliches/hackneyed phrases wherever possible) with the traditional cringe inducing opening ceremony. Fortunately, as this began at 0600 local time I only caught the last few minutes of it prior to the first game of the tournament.

That game pitted the hosts, France, against Argentina. Ever since Argentina scrapped their policy of not selecting players based overseas they have been improving steadily. The French have been picked by some as second favourites for the tournament, but are famously consistent only in their inconsistency.

It was the Mr Hyde version of the French team that turned up today, with an error ridden performance, lacking entirely in the offensive flair for which they are famous. To be fair, the Argentinians applied the pressure with constant high kicks, and determined defense. Final score: 17-12 to Argentina, in an entertaining match even if it wasn't of the highest quality.

That puts the pressure on my friends from Ireland who play in the same group. With only two from the group to qualify, France will certainly be determined not to lose another game. New Zealand kick off (can I use that again?) their campaign tonight (local time) against Italy in what should be a walk in the park.

For a more professional description, featuring yet more of your favourite sporting cliches, see the New Zealand Herald.