We had two finals played today - a big one between SA and England, and smaller one between Auckland and Wellington.
The earlier one, in the Air New Zealand Cup was fast, passionate, pulsating and fun. Auckland ran out deserved winners. Anyone except the most one-eyed Wellingtonian would probably agree.
The later one, the "bigger" of the two in most people's book was dull and grinding. South Africa ran out deserved winners in my opinion. England again looked flat and unimaginative. A fumble caused some excitement by the TMO decided the player was in touch before touching the ball down - a decision I'm pleased I didn't have to make, and far, far harder than, for example, the decision not to award a scrum to New Zealand. South Africa looked to play within themselves, more concerned about not giving opportunities than creating - judging quite rightly as it turned out that England would make enough mistakes to let them win it ugly.
If I was advertising the game to a global audience, I know which one I'd use - and it wouldn't be the big match, it would be the exciting one. It's a shame that the big match came down to this. I'm going to point the finger at Barnes, Kaplan and Spreadbury again. If they hadn't screwed it up in that quarter final, do we really doubt that New Zealand would have been a little stunned by their close victory over France and have knocked the sais out in the semi (still an amazing good result for them). Judging by the two Tri-Nations matches we'd have had a spectacle tonight too. South Africa would know they couldn't have just sat back against the All Blacks - the All Blacks will cut you to ribbons 19 times out of 20 if you do that. They'd have attacked, the All Blacks would have attacked, both sides would have defended too and we'd have had a good game. I'd guess the All Blacks would probably have won - although beating the Bokke three times in a year (home, away and neutral territory) is a big call. Rugby would have had, potentially, a great, pulsating finale to the show - just like 12 years ago in South Africa.
Ah well, it was not to be.
Next week - Guinness Premiership action without significant competition, at least on my television channel selection.
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