No one grabbed ownership of tournament

STRANGE in a way that what has been a fantastic tournament has produced a paucity of real individual star quality.

Sure the likes of Jamie Roberts, David Pocock, Kurtley Beale, Kahn Fotuali’i and Mike Phillips have been outstanding but nobody has grabbed ownership of this tournament in the manner Jonah Lomu dominated the 1995 event.

Dan Carter had the ability to set it alight but sadly his campaign ended before he got out of third gear.

In his absence, with the exception of Rhys Priestland, no other out-half grabbed their opportunity by the scruff of the neck, even if Aaron Cruden displayed unbelievable maturity to handle the pressure cauldron he found himself in.

Up front there were a number of outstanding performances, especially from some exceptionally talented back row combinations. Ireland’s trio of Sean O’Brien, Stephen Ferris and Jamie Heaslip set the tournament alight with a magnificent collective effort against Australia in round two. Since then there have been some equally impressive outings from the back rows of Wales, France, New Zealand and Australia. No surprise therefore in seeing that quartet made it into the last four. David Pocock’s display in dragging the Wallabies over the line almost single-handedly against South Africa in their quarter-final was the stand-out individual performance of the tournament for me.

The physical nature of the set piece and the collisions dictated that the front fives had a big say in the destination of the final placings with some outstanding young front rowers emerging in Owen Franks and Cian Healy.

At hooker, final opponents Keven Mealamu and William Servat are true artisans of the game but despite receiving limited game time for South Africa, because of the presence of his captain John Smit, I have gone for Bismark du Plessis. He made more impact in his regular 30 minute cameo appearances than others did with much more game time.

In the second row another Springbok legend bowed out at the culmination of this tournament in Victor Matfield.

He has been the games most influential forward for close on a decade and in the quarter-final defeat to Australia reigned supreme right to the end.

His range of skills will be missed.

My selection then: 15. Israel Dagg, 14. Corey Jane, 13. Brian O’Driscoll, 12. Jamie Roberts, 11. Digby Ioane, 10. Rhys Priestland, 9. Mike Phillips; 1. Tony Woodcock, 2. Bismark du Plessis, 3. Owen Franks, 4. James Horwill, 5. Victor Matfield, 6. Jerome Kaino, 7. David Pocock, 8. Imanol Harinordoquy.