The competition was poor, with major highs and lows. Teams were unable to play on a regular level, a mixed of not so good and definitively bad.
To be compared with the 6Ns, squads playing on a high level, any mistep meant being ruled out from final win.
No Kidding Trad... lots of poor play. Blockies lucky to face a patchy Wallaby side and never really got the best of Kiwis who manhandled them in both tests. Wallabies blown off the field in the second test in by far the worst quality game of the rugby champ. Argies totally screwed over by the ref but still they totally outclassed the Blockies. Southern Rugby is bloody awful!
France is good- the best team in the world at the moment, and certainly favourites to win the world cup.
I am not so convinced about the other 6 nations' teams.
Ireland is the next best, but they have failed miserably at every world cup.
They are playing well as a unit, but how many world-class players do they actually have?
Pace has always been an issue for the Irish.
New Zealand knocked the Irish out in the quarters of the world cup with ease with a high-tempo game.
If the Irish played New Zealand again tomorrow in New Zealand, I think the All Blacks on current form would easily take them. The All Blacks are not at their best yet, but they are getting better and starting to get into good form.
The favourites for the next world cup must be France followed by New Zealand, and then the Boks, then the Irish, and everyone else.
Although it does depend on the draw at the world cup. Many teams could win with a good draw, but could they do 2 back-to-back tough games in a semi and final, or also the quarters?
Blocks are 8th best team in world, probably even less than that.
Blocks were not better in super rugby... it made you guys worse.
That's why we have 3 RWC's....we're so muche worse than the freaking Poms!
That's why we have 3 RWC's....
Again with that thing.
Rugby is a confidential sport. It is played at a high level, professional one by less than ten nations.
Out of them, only three have enough to support a domestic league.
Added to that, countries that have very limited economical potential have overgrown their importance.
Of course, southern hemisphere rugbys won RWCs, and they will win more.
They need to be given something to avoid the unavoidable concentration of rugby in the North.
Unless newcomers enter the play, southern rugbys will keep being boosted. If AU, NZ and SA disappear, the rugby world loses one third of three regular client nations.
This basic observation hardly sinks in SA rugby supporters. The most propped rugby in the history, the one that was bestowed three WCs in hope to promote the game.
Regardless of any matter of level, southern rugbys will keep winning WCs.
Already stated, the RCW happens every year and that the 6Ns.
Rugby is a highly political game and compared with the regular WC, the 6 N is much less loaded with political considerations. 6N teams can all lose a 6N, their survival does not depend on winning.
This will be until 2025 when SA joins. From that point on, a nation will be given victories on the sole ground it must win to keep up the delusion.
Hahaha, that old chestnut that we didn't deserve the win and that we had lucky draws on route to the final.
95 was probably the toughest of the route to the World Cup. We had Australia, the world champions who previously beaten us consistently. We also had France in the Semis and a game that was almost called off. It was a last minute try line save from the boks that saved them.
Then we we have Jonah Lomu to deal with, but now the Kiwis say the whole team got food poisoning and were flat on the day. They didn't seem flat, just that Lomu got actually tackled for the first time in the competition rather than just running over players.
But what about 1999 when Aus won it. SA was on form but got out played by a brilliant Larkham only to face a French team that surprise a napping All Black team and convincingly beaten them. They couldn't repeat the same feat a week later and the Ausies won the trophy.
My point being, it is a competition and some of the best teams can have a off day. You have to show up every match day and win no matter who the opposition is.
Ireland thought that they could just walk through their group but Japan, as ever, planned very meticulously and won all their games. What didn't expect was Rassies gutter play of grinding them down. Instead, the Scot and Ireland were playing Harlem Globe trotter style rugby rather than respecting the fundamentals.
The All Blacks got blown off their feet by the English who played the greatest game ever, but then thought they could just walk over the South Africans.
South Africa got lucky in the pool, but it still doesn't make them less favourites. Wales were in the Semi and at the time a very successful team with a number of Grand Slams
Although, none of the teams today are that great right now. A lot of experiments, but no real threat like the old AB team between 2011 and 2015, that team was freakish. Carter, Mcaw, Reid, Sonny Bill etc.
So yes, SA can almost be ranked 8th right now, but which team is truly number one.
It boils down which team shows up on all the games and can raise their intensity.
I'm very for the blobs, we have a bit too many senior citizens in the team and not enough youngsters who have gained equally amount of test experience.
I do think Pool A and Pool B is pretty much the World Cup and who ever reach the Semi is the winner, but who ever plays in the other pool and reach the semi or the final pretty will be playing against an exhausted team . But England and Aus still need to find a way out.
So can't wait for next year
There is nothing like deserving.
Each WC won by SA rugby was tainted by reffing controversies.
Starting with 1995, the Mandela watch (how many tries were cancelled during the semi final), the food poisoning scandal for the final.
Rugby is a highly political game. Much goes in the back stage. Nevertheless, less goes in the 6 N backstage than the WC's backstage.
South hemisphere countries will keep winning WCs, it is mandatory, that is all what they are left with.
And the world of rugby can not afford to lose countries.
