I would love France to win today just to spoil NZ's party.
I can't see it of course, but you never know.
They haven't won the cup for 24 years, and considering they are the best team in the world and have been for many a year, they are serial underachievers.
Long may it continue.
Fook them and fook their haka!


Why can't opposition teams show their @rses to the haka?

That would be as much an obscenity as the haka itself, bring it on.



Why we let them perpetuate this gross intimidation is beyond me.
It's clearly not anthemic, hence why all the machismo gesticulations? It's an invitation to violence.
In fact we should exclude them from world rugby until they stop this nonsense.

Waht an abysmal final, France edged it in the open play and but for a few dubious decisions from the ref would have had a deserved win.

ITV making out that because New Zealand won nobody will care how poor the game was. Well actually not everyone just watched the game to see the Kiwis win, I wanted a good game of rugby.

So near to an upset!
Shame.

that was !

All Blacks in high pressure game are just like every other union side.

Engrossing game of RU ......... thoroughly enjoyed it.

Harinordiquy was immense at the lineout, allowing the French to win lots of vital possession. And of course McCaw was everywhere; some of his work at the breakdown defies belief, his ablity to slow down the opposition's ball, and sometimes even pinch possession is a joy to watch.

Well done to the All Blacks, they've been the best team for most of the last decade, and now have a Championship to go with it.

Another awful game of Rugby, dressed up as a classic by the Union-loving media.

The most frustrating thing is that it had all the potential of being a very good game, but as always with Union, sides just seem intent on stifling all signs of life from the game.

The negative nature of the game was summed up by the last 3 minutes, when the All Blacks literally hid the ball from the opposition and refused to budge from the same square metre of grass until the referee called time on things.

Yes, by all means kill the clock, but to be able to do so in such an obvious, negative way shows a massive disregard for supporters of the game, who surely want to be entertained?

You're making a huge assumption as to what entertains supporters.

I thoroughly enjoyed those last few minutes, and appreciated the skill of the All Blacks to recycle possession under immense pressure , in a series of absorbing mauls.

Similarly, I watch RL for the defence, as I enjoy discipline of the organised defence, the tackles and big hits ..... all that "basketball" played by the poofs in the backs bores me silly.

Disappointed by the tournament as a whole. The All Blacks were deserved winners as they're head and shoulders above their nearest rivals. If they can keep this level up then they'll be unstoppable as I think the standard of rugby union played by the other three or four 'big' nations has worryingly dropped.
Next time I'd like to see fewer teams and a maximum duration of 4 weeks. Going off what I've read on here and elsewhere on t'internet, I've been lucky to have had Canal+ commentary rather than ITV.

There's nothing wrong with strong defence or being able to maintain possession, but to simply kill the action in the way the All Blacks did, is mind-numbingly dull, whatever the occasion and the situation....they're was no re-cycling in that last 3 minutes, just an unorganised mess that was highlighted by the session where the ball laughably disappeared and everybody just stopped, even though the match was still 'live'.

Not sure how you can come to the conclusion that New Zealand are head and shoulders above their rivals after an 8-7 win. It’s not as if the All Blacks were playing all the rugby and France were playing a negative game trying to close it down and grind out a result – if anything it was the other way around. If you were watching that game without knowing which team was which, for me you would say the French were the more skilful and athletic team

I'm not just talking about this mornin, I'm talking about the past few years and of course it's just my personal opinion. It looked to me that NZ were more concerned with not losing than going out and winning the game.

Ok, fair point, the All Blacks have been the best team of the last 4 years. I do get frustrated watching them play a lot of the time as they have some very talented players and yet very rarely cut loose as they should... although much of that can be put down to the constraints of the game itself than the players

considering Sonny Bill can not get into the first 15. What is the point of him staying in Rugby Union?

Na he took a big wage cut when he left Toulan to go and play in NZ. He took that wage cut cos he wanted to play for the All Blacks. Now the world cup is over he can wait 4 more years or move back to Sydney (which he wants to do) and get paid more playing League.

A french Union side could pay him loads but like I said he wants to live in Sydney so unless a Union Side in Sydney can pay him some big money I think SBW could be back in the NRL.

As for the game. Utter rubbish. A close final but boring. Any other Test environment the All Blacks would of thrown the ball around and dragged France all over the place but as usual what we see in Union in world cup knock out stages is a reluctance to be expansive and the laws of the game allow you to win by being anything but expansive.

There is nothing in that game that League doesnt have but RL has just been slow to promote the game. There is no way that product is better than League.

Just out of curiosity I watched the Union WC Final this morning.

I am sorry but if that is the best that they can come up with it just shows how bias the media are towards union.

Shocking game and I will admit the rules of the game I am not to sure about but God the way the AB's played the game was a joke to say the least,roll on the 4 Nations and we can watch some real rugby(well from NZ and Aus anyway).

Just had a quick sken at some of Monday's back pages and I've yet to see even a mention of the rugby union world cup final.

according to the stats he made 14 tackles - a RL forward would be sacked after putting in that kind of shift (i accept there are 2 more forwards to share the work around but 14 seems pretty low to me)

It's impossible to compare. League and union may have their similarities but in general they are worlds apart.

I'm sort of glad NZ won (I actually wanted France to win near the end just for a laugh), but they came really close to freezing again. They played like they expected France to fall apart, and had no Plan B when they didn't.

On the comments re the other top southern sides, SA have been on a slow decline for a while because they decided a couple of years ago to come to this World Cup with an ageing (but experienced) team. As a result in a number of positions they haven't replaced players they otherwise would have. Australia were just very poor all campaign. Some of their players - notably the halfbacks Genia and particularly Cooper - really underperformed.

The final for me summed up WHY RU works at international level - because you can use safety-first tactics to keep a game tight. Whilst as a free-flowing spectacle it may not be good to watch, tight contests keep interest all the way through. In RL you simply can't do that. Sadly England will have to give on Australia the ball 50% on average.

BTW one tactic which I think a lot of RU sides ought to review is the high kick midfield. I think I saw it work twice or three times during the WC, out of hundreds of attempts.

Let's play adjectives.

"Well it's not beautiful, Nigel"
"It's not, Hugh"
"It doen't have to be, Nigel"
"Absolutely, Hugh"
"But it is thrilling"
"Immense"
"Awesome"
"Huge"
"Enthralling"
"Fantastic"
"Colossal"
"Massive"
"Super"
"I've loved it, Nigel"
"Loved every minute, Hugh"

France captain Thierry Dusautoir named IRB player of the year.

Really?


Saturday October 29 – England v Wales
Saturday November 5 – England v Australia

Which of these 2 games on the BBC will get better ratings than the 6.6 million for the Wales v France semi-final from the RWC?

You can come up with figures as much as you want GF but it is still true.

To be honest if we get half that amount I would be quite happy but we will wait and see.