Well, reading my two World Cup posts, what was I thinking! It’s been a long 4 years, it’s going to be an even longer 4 years ahead. How did it all go so wrong?
It looked so good – the All Blacks were the best prepared they’ve ever been. Winning both the Tri Nations and Bledisloe Cup, they looked ready and were favourites for the World Cup. 24,000 supporters travelled from New Zealand to cheer them on. A strong pool round with over 300 points scored and no major injuries.
We should have started to wonder as we watched the English beat Australia before the All Blacks met France in their quarter – a crazy result.
And there we were, in Cardiff at the Quarter Final – All Blacks v France. It all started so well, 10 nil up after about 15 minutes, we were quietly confident. It was almost like a home game, there were Kiwis everywhere. Half time, 13-6, and we were still reasonably confident the AB’s fitness would see them roll over the French in the second half.
Whatever was said to the French at half time should be used in training manuals forever. They came out a different team. That’s when things started to go pear shaped, and once again we sat in the stand and could see it all unfolding – two tries to the French, and that is all she wrote . . . . one was clearly after a very forward pass, but the result was in the next morning’s papers – 20-18 to France and the tournament favourites, once again were heading home early.
Fortunately we headed to Crete the very next morning and the Greeks didn’t care about the Rugby World Cup or what was happening so we didn’t hear a word about it for a week, which gave us a chance to mourn and then move on.
And move on we must! What a bizarre tournament! Argentina beat France twice, but we couldn’t beat them once! England beat Australia – the first time in 4 years! And we Kiwis were left cheering for South Africa in the final – unbelievable!
Still, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so bring on 2011 and the next world cup – I won’t be there, after 3 in a row I don’t think I could survive a fourth!
