Semifinal Special: NZ ruins RWC23 for everybody
Foster penning his Redemption Song, plus a reader poll for SF2
NZ 44 Argentina 6
If you’re a fan of All Black rugby, the anxiety this morning would have lasted all of 10 minutes. That’s the moment New Zealand, using slick hands from Sam Whitelock, Jordie Barrett and Richie Mo’unga, put Will Jordan over unopposed for a try.
The All Blacks had been unconvincing to that point, struggling to find space with their exit kicks and having to defend multiple phases against a committed Argentina. After Beauden Barrett punted away the kickoff reception, Argentina strung 14 phases together, which in effect meant the All Blacks had defended for 51 phases in a row if you go back six days at the same venue.
That first Jordan try signified something greater than seven points: it told Argentina that if you have the All Blacks under pressure for any length of time, it needed to count for more than three because their ability to turn possession into points remains unparalleled.
It’s always questionable to sit 18,500kms away and then try to put yourself not just at the centre of the action but deep inside the minds of the athletes, but there was an eerie sense of the air being let out of the balloon there and then. Even through the effects mics you could sense a lot of the energy sap from Stade de France and that seemed to transfer to Los Pumas.
As it turned out, the remaining 70 minutes played out much like the foregone conclusion many feared as soon as the semifinal draw was set.
That’s not on the All Blacks. There’s an undertone to some of the early reports that suggests they were complicit in bringing the mood of the tournament down, but bollocks to that.
Wrote Chris Foy in the Daily Mail:
By the time the All Blacks scored their third try in injury time at the end of the first half, the atmosphere was horribly flat. Everyone knew what was coming.
It became a training session and a procession for Ian Foster’s side. Will Jordan claimed a fine hat-trick, but even that felt like a hollow achievement in the circumstances. There were thousands of empty seats long before the final whistle.
A hat-trick in a semifinal is in no way “hollow”, even if two of the tries required catching the ball and walking over the line. Was it hollow when Jonah Lomu made a mockery of England’s place in the semifinals in 1995?
Much of the sentiment is pure snobbery against Argentina; the belief that despite this being their third trip to the penultimate stage, they don’t really belong there.
I doubt there’d be this much dismissiveness in the UK press if last week’s results had gone the other way and the All Blacks had beaten Wales by 40, or Ireland had beaten Argentina by the same score.
Which is not to say this was a good match. It wasn’t. Michael Cheika acknowledged that his team lacked the requisite “class” when they had opportunities. But hey, sometimes rugby throws up mismatches and sometimes it throws up matches that are evenly contested and still absolute pants. After four belters last weekend, we were probably overdue a regression.
Yes, the system of determining the draw so early needs revisiting, but we’ve known this for a long time now. Having the five top-ranked sides on one side of the draw was a nonsense, but it did also contribute to the GREATEST WEEKEND OF RUGBY IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD EVER.
It probably doesn’t require repeating that New Zealand is a team that has made a mess of a lot of games over the past World Cup cycle. That they never looked like making a mess of this should be seen as a testament, not an indictment.