Winners and losers of RWC 2011

THE All Blacks never forgave Stephen Donald for the missed touch kick which ultimately condemned them to defeat by Australia in Hong Kong this time last year.

Graham Henry notified Donald four months ago that he would not be required for the World Cup but the old fellow had the sense to stop the unwanted fly-half making too early an exit to Bath just in case.

Donald, a long way down the pecking order behind Dan Carter, Colin Slade and Aaron Cruden when the tournament began, would have been fifth-choice had Luke McAlister not decamped for Toulouse. The outcast was casting off for whitebait on the banks of the Waikato river near home-town Hamilton when Henry fished him back into the pool.

And so it came to pass at Eden Park yesterday that the All Black reject won the World Cup with his only shot at goal — a Moby Dick of a kick to launch a whale of a time for the hosts with the most. You could not make it up.

THE Welsh and South Africans still point a collective figure of blame at Alain Rolland and Bryce Lawrence respectively because their failure to go the distance had to be someone else’s fault other than their own. Now the French are entitled to feel just as sore about Craig Joubert and one penalty he refused to give them.

The South African referee either ignored or did not see Tony Woodcock’s high tackle on Francois Trinh-Duc. Seconds later, Joubert pinged a Frenchman and Donald’s kick left the gallant French one point short. Had Woodcock been punished, his try might easily have counted for nothing.

WINNING captains define World Cups, none more so than Francois Pienaar (South Africa 1995), John Eales (Australia, 1999) and Martin Johnson (England, 2003). Nobody has deserved to get his hands on the pot of gold more than the Scottish shepherd Willie McCaw’s great, great grandson Richie. And to think he got through the last three matches on one good foot and pain-killers in the other.

If it hadn’t been for McCaw, Henry might have spent last night dressed up in disguise with a one-way ticket to Havana in readiness to seek asylum of sorts in Cuba. His old sparring partner, Clive Woodward, not Fidel Castro, claimed he was doing something similar when Wales led during the 2003 quarter-final in Brisbane and he may only have been half-joking…

ON referring to some French players as “spoilt brats”, the outgoing French head coach Marc Lievremont said: “When I read my words in the press, I realised I might have been better keeping my big fat mouth shut. It was said affectionately.

“Obviously, it was humorous.’

And to think they could so easily have been preparing forthe most patriotic march along the Champs Elysees since de Gaulle and the Free French at the Liberation of Paris in 1945.

A THIRD World Cup winner bowed out yesterday, joining John Smit and Victor Matfield in Test retirement but with more than a twinge of regret that he didn’t prevent certain English teammates letting the country down at the midget-throwing night in a Queenstown bar. “I left around 10pm,” Lewis Moody said yesterday as the ex-England captain. “I was leaving as the other group were arriving. You can only make people aware. You can tell them and tell them and they have to get burned before they understand.”

ENGLAND in 2015 with proposals for six matches in Cardiff, including a complete home pool stage for Wales which will not go down well in Ireland, Australia or anywhere else who think that gives the Taffia an unfair advantage.

Changes in the format are unlikely but the time has surely come to look at expanding the cast from 20 to 24. Splitting them into six pools of four with the two best runners-up joining the six winners in the last eight would mean playing one match fewer for the finalists.

The top eight non-qualifiers could then go into their own knock-out competition, thereby sustaining interest longer across a broader spectrum while shortening the tournament by one week to five, with a maximum six-day break between fixtures.

AN English 1-2-3. First, the midget-throwing nonsense. Second, Manu Tuilagi jumping off a ferry in Auckland harbour. Then the barrister-referee, Wayne Barnes, made his bid for the podium by missing a pass so far forward that Shane Williams in full flight only just got his boot to it.

The little man’s 59th Test try in the third-place decider against Australia was allowed to stand, evoking Kiwi memories of Barnes’ failure to spot a less exaggerated forward pass during their elimination by France in Cardiff four years earlier. Moments after the Williams try, the same touch judge who failed to spot the illegality of the pass, Romain Poite, called an inside one from James O’Connor forward when there was only a centimetre or two in it. Fortunately, the Wallabies recovered to ensure justice was done on the scoreboard.

6 — Wales against France: (James Hook 3, Stephen Jones 2, Leigh Halfpenny 1).

3 — France against New Zealand: (Francois Trinh-Duc 2, Dimitri Yachvili 1).