So the All Blacks deserved it, didn’t they? Yes, yes and thrice yes. But after a brilliant World Cup, and a superb final, the best and the lowest scoring in the tournament’s history, just a few thoughts.
The All Blacks stretched the rules just this side of breaking point: one more high tackle or offside, and there would have been an almighty twang and the whole edifice of Eden Park would have been brought crashing down. The amount of tackling off the ball was extraordinary and the gap for the Kiwi try was created by the French jumper at the line-out being thrown out of the way. When Piri Weepu kicked the ball out for half-time, you could tell how rattled the All Blacks were. They are difficult to warm to once they resort to that low-risk, no-joy rugby of dubious legality.
Both McCaw and Graham Henry were oddly graceless after the game in not acknowledging how brilliant the French had been. The French all-white V-formation advancing like a spearhead on the haka was spine-tingling, and largely missed by New Zealand television (but not by the IRB, which has just fined them £2,500 for being disrespectful in what must be one of the most absurd pieces of sporting jobsworthery in history). If there was any justice, the French skipper Thierry Dusautoir, tireless in the tackle and bold in the break, would have his own Arc de Triomphe erected by a grateful nation.
In the end the wrong team lost, but the right team picked up the trophy, if only because if you want something that bad, you may as well have it. But this pulsating game showed once and for all that top-class rugby is the most intense sporting experience of all.
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