RWC Special: Deeply flawed and almost heroic
The match rugby deserved, in every respect, PLUS: A wrap of the best writing from the final ($)
You almost dread reading the headlines because there’s a part of you that knows so much of it is going to be about the officials.
Welcome to rugby in the 21st century, a sport that ties itself in knots with its laws and thinks the way around that is to add, not subtract, layers of complexity.
But despite doing so, I’d have rather not started on that.
To be brutally frank, I was barely even interested in the performance of the four-time champion Springboks. They are what they were and were what they are: an immutable phalanx that bows to neither will nor circumstance. They won three knockout games in three weeks by a total of three points.
That’s astonishing and yet somehow they’re not - and if that sounds like a backhanded compliment, take note that Roger Federer, who was in the crowd supporting the men in green, proved that a backhand can be a thing of great beauty.
The All Blacks, however… now there was a fascinating study in human fallibility. For 80 minutes they managed to be both deeply, deeply flawed and wonderfully heroic.