Three Great Moments
1: Fender Bender
Having been barely sighted all tournament, Ben Smith started the bronze medal match against Wales and wound back the clock.
He gave a classic performance. Bender was back baby. Big time. He scored two tries, both of which showed his incredible footwork, ability to beat the first defender and do the unconventional.
His second try also included a brilliant fend and the world loved seeing a great player finish with a great performance.
2: Fighting Faf
You have to love Faf de Klerk. It’s compulsory. The tiny South African halfback has the heart of a lion and is into everything.
He’s a 100 miles an hour, in the face of anyone he can get in the face of and he’d drive you nuts playing against him.
He was fantastic all tournament but his best moment came in the semi-final when he decided to pick a fight with Welsh lock Jake Ball. There was Faf all 1.71m of him taking on 2.01m, 120kg Ball.
And Faf didn’t look anything but confident he was going to come out on top.
3: Things were bubbling along in the first two weeks with no real matters of interest to grab the attention.
All the results were going with form and then wham, out of the blue, Japan beat Ireland. No one other than the Japanese players and coaching staff saw it coming.
A shock wasn’t on the cards as far as everyone else thought and when Ireland led 12-3 after half an hour it looked to be business as usual.
But Japan dug deep and upped the pace, stretched Ireland and then broke them when Kenki Fukuoka was able to sneak in at the corner to put them in front with 20 minutes left.