Put it All on Black

Without Wales to cheer on in the World Cup final, Stuart Barnes says the game needs a New Zealand win.

Rugby needs a New Zealand win, not glory for the flairless French

History repeats itself as New Zealand meets France as they did back in 1987; same teams but extremely different circumstances. Twenty four years ago Serge Blanco dived into the corner for a late try to beat Australia. It remains, to this day, one of those indelible World Cup memories. In bitter contrast, this French team has made a final without the merest hint of French 'gloire'. But that is not to say the passage to the final will not claim a place in rugby world cup history. Their semi-final victory will be recalled for the controversial decision of referee Alain Rolland to make a rash decision to send Welsh captain Sam Warburton off after 18 minutes and thereby handing the initiate to a French team that was almost too nervously hopeless to take it with both hands. Wales, with 14 men for an hour, should have won. They lost because France succeeded with three from three attempts and Wales just one from five. In particular Stephen Jones' miss of Mike Phillips conversion from the 15-metre line was the sort of error that costs teams tournament. Hard on Wales and Jones but these are the bitter realities of international sport. As for Alain Rolland I will state that there have been many 'tip tackles' worse than Warburton's and none have received a red card. The dual national Irish/French referee set a precedent for draconian standards after 44 games of far more lenient refereeing. The speed with which he made the decision was decisive but dangerously so and the net result has been to influence the outcome of this tournament in a way a referee never should. Why he had to be so quick to send Warburton off we'll never know. But this much I do know; if Warburton's tackle really merited a straight red card the game has problems dealing with the balance between hysterical fear of political correctness in trying to soften the image and walking a proper line between what is and is not permissible. In rugby league Warburton would almost certainly have been yellow carded and put on report. A committee would have met after the match and adjudicated over the incident. A clear red card is one thing but this sort of incident quite another. An error has to be made on the side of caution because once rashly made it cannot be changed.

Bumbling

In principle this is not a dissimilar argument to the death penalty. The risk of one innocent man going to his death is too great (apart from obvious humanitarian debating points) and Mr Rolland did his bit - inadvertently - to kill Welsh hopes. That they still almost made the final is testament to their courage and resolve and France's incompetent bumbling. There is something about those dour Italian football teams that have scrambled their way to World Cup football finals - and sometimes they have gone on to victory. The day after the final, next Monday, is Labour Day in New Zealand and a bank holiday. It will be national mourning if they lose the competition after performing with such conviction to dismantle their great rivals, Australia. Having already crushed France 37-17 (with France playing their best rugby of the tournament to date) it seems only a cocktail of Kiwi complacency and French inspiration can alter what appears more and more as an inevitable New Zealand destiny. This All Black team is a level-headed bunch while the muse has deserted France. They look like nothing