Winning a rugby world cup away......

....has to be the true test. It's a feeling our new AB friends on this Board haven't experienced. Hell the ABs won both their RWCs at Eden Park.

Can these home field bullies win elsewhere? It's not a sure thing, given the way  they came home leaking oil against the flailing Frogs.  After all the Frogs had a kick to win all the marbles despite the strenuous efforts of the ref in favour of the Blacks.

For the record the Aussies (twice), the Poms and the Springboks have won RWCs on a foreign field. Somehow it just feels better.

 Joke is they were gifted this last WC by a poor ref - the French were all over them. We all know the best side on the day lost that final - they were robbed

When I predicted that the World Cup was going to be thoroughly dictated by referees in 2010 most said it was an early excuse and laughed at me. I don't see many South Africans laughing now. The writing was on the wall with the adjustment to the ELVs of 2010 and that first test against New Zealand. 

The mantra was that the ELVs allowed teams to retain the ball more and encourage more attacking play. This however never prevailed. All it did was create more ambiguity and lean the game even more to New Zealand's strengths. The last cycle of rugby is very suspicious. 2009 was the year the Boks, under Plumtree's watchful eye, that was based on accuracy at the breakdown and very careful tactical nous. It was nothing that a better side could not overcome. But South Africa's success could not be tolerated, so the IRB looked for ways to remedy the problem.

Roll onwards to 2010 and we had New Zealand pulling defenders out of position to create holes, blocking chasers and smashing them to the deck, many forward passes, all manner witchcraft at the breakdown. It became a sloppy free-for-all. McCaw would literally dive into the ruck from the oppositions side on the retreat and bridge the ball. The Franks brothers were highly adept at meddling with the guard defenders at rucks and causing chaos. It was becoming impossible to win the ball against New Zealand. 

New Zealand have in my mind deteriorated from 2008 onwards. They look incredibly bland and out of ideas. their lack of depth is soon to be an issue as most of their key players will not be making it to 2015. They could never have won this World Cup without the IRB molly-cuddling them and certainly could not have done so abroad. They were comprehensively outplayed in the final and not once did they put together one genuinely good display all tournament. The irony is that 2007 saw more structured and attacking rugby than the meddlings of the IRB could create in 2011. A bad year for rugby and a bad year for sport as a whole.
 

Yep things reached an all time low with this world cup. The game has to be cleaned up.