The world just got bored with the World Cup
Warren Gatland said that the challenge for his Wales side was not to get bored. Heck, Warren, that was the challenge for the whole world. Dust gathered on our eyeballs as the minutes ticked by and most of us preferred to stay half blind casualties of history. This was one of the dullest rugby matches of all time.
Apologies to England for saying the other day that they played the ‘bootiful’ game. England had plenty of spice and variety in their thrilling semifinal victory over New Zealand.
It is South Africa and Wales who play the ‘bootiful’ game and even the 50km walk at the Olympics is more entertaining than this dross. For the record Matej Toth, of Slovakia, shuffled home in front at Rio in a shade over three and a half hours. Heady days.
If anyone was thinking of promoting an annual play-off between the winners of the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship, then this match will have the idea removed for a head injury assessment. Potential sponsors will now be looking to get a foothold in the global marbles scene, a game with real pace of play.
So what if South Africa and Wales kicked the ball 81 times between them, you say. Why should it matter? Well, it matters because no kid from the townships will yearn to emulate Siya Kolisi or S’busiso Nkosi if this is what rugby is all about.
And, yes, I understand when Gatland says that he is proud of his team and that Wales punch massively above their weight when you consider their playing numbers. But will the boys and girls who dreamed of being the next Barry John or Gareth Edwards or Gerald Davies find much to inspire them to great deeds in the way this Wales side plays.
It seems a shame that a great warrior like Alun Wyn Jones, who was winning his 133rd cap in Sunday’s semifinal and looks on his way to breaking Sir Richie’s record of 148, should captain a team who seemed more anxious not to lose the game than win it. It seems a shame that Gareth Davies, a halfback with real verve, should lead the team out for his 50th cap and have to play in leg irons and handcuffs.
And that is a question that will concern New Zealand Rugby, and indeed the Chiefs, when Gatland comes home. The man has a superb record at club and international level and his players speak very highly of him. But the edge of my seat has been largely unused when Gatland’s teams have been doing their stuff.
If all teams played this way then World Rugby would be compelled to change the laws. They did it once when there was too much kicking in the game. They could do it again and limit either the length of kicks or the amount of kicks per half that teams were allowed to do between the 22s. But beware the laws of unintended consequences. Coaches would soon find new ways to bore the pants off us.
After such a wonderful World Cup, ignited by the way that Japan wanted to play the game, this was a poor day for rugby. When you saw Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus knocking over a drop goal in his town shoes before the match, you knew that South Africa would not be running wild.
They won this semifinal because they were the better team despite a couple of howlers in the second half when Faf de Klerk and Willie le Roux dropped simple balls. South Africa could even afford to give away a daft penalty when they were seven points up and had control of the match, even if the error had Erasmus banging his desk in frustration.
Wales stuck the ball in the corner and then went through about 20 phases that averaged about one pass a time. It is another version of no risk rugby which we have seen before from this attritional Wales side. Yawn.
Maro Itoje messaged the world; ‘‘The support has been unbelievable!!! Thank you so much. I really appreciate it – it was an honour to play against this NZ team! Let’s keep it moving!!!.’’
OK, so that has nothing to do with the Wales v South Africa game but, dear reader, I thought you deserved a little light relief. And the fear is that however England may want to play, the final will be more of the same.
The last meeting between England and South Africa ended in a 12-11 win for England at Twickenham last year. The Springboks pack crushed England for 45 minutes but they couldn’t score many points. England hung in there and were lucky to win when Owen Farrell escaped a penalty for a reckless tackle at the end. But only half the current starting England pack played that day.
Perhaps Sunday’s semifinal might once have been enlivened by a bit of bosh but the new laws and the TV cameras have taken care of most of that. Even so Wales had to be tremendously
courageous to survive some of South Africa’s monster hits.
Why they kept kicking off to Duane Vermeulen, a man who can crush bodies in an inflatable dinghy on rough seas, is beyond me. He kept smashing back into Welsh defenders until one man broke. Poor Tomas Francis went bravely in for the tackle and did not come out the other side. Shane Williams said you could hear the screams in the commentary box.
Handre Pollard said about South Africa’s style of game, if that is not a misnomer: ‘‘The opposition knows about it, but there’s not much they can do about it once their legs go. It’s (the final) going to be another physical one.’’ Perhaps we should have expected South Africa and England to make the final because they were the dominant teams in the Junior World Championships of five to seven years ago. Indeed England have comfortably the best record of any recent team having made seven of the last nine finals, winning three of them.
In 2014 an England team captained by Itoje beat a South African team captained by Handre Pollard by a single point. England tried to play rugby, dropped a lot of ball, but were just about good enough to beat the dour Boks. How good a prophet is such history? It probably doesn’t tell us much more than England will probably again try to play a bit more rugby than the Boks.
England’s presence in the final has ruled out the likely appointment of Wayne Barnes to take the whistle, so it is surely time to bring a bit of Gallic humour to the occasion. No, not Nigel – I’m talking about Jerome Garces who would become the first Frenchman to ever referee a World Cup final.
He was the most entertaining part of an otherwise deadly World Cup Sunday.
At a glance
South Africa 19 (Damian de Allende try; Handre Pollard conversion, 4 penalties), Wales 16 (Josh Adams try; Dan Biggar 3 penalties, Leigh Halfpenny conversion). HT: 9-6.