ENOUGH TIME has elapsed to consider how rugby, and the way in which it is played, fared during the Rugby World Cup.
In the later rounds we may have forgotten about the play itself amongst the controversies, the disgusting verbal assaults on referees and particularly on Wayne Barnes, the master. And then there’s the refusal of some South Africans to entertain even the possibility that one of their players had grossly insulted an opponent from England.
The final was exciting because it was close but it was nothing like vintage – not even Barnes and his outstanding refereeing could make that into a classic.
However, we all know that after several years of box-kick hoofing and utter boredom, the sport did break out of its own strait-jacket on some key occasions. The first half of the France v South Africa quarter-final especially demonstrated the towering heights to which the sport can reach and it was hard to accept such brilliance between the two was
