Sport is wonderful. It doesn't matter, yet it matters. It matters deeply, as every All Black supporter knows from the hollow feeling in the heart since Saturday night. "Shattered," is how most describe it and that is how it feels. Don't tell us it doesn't matter.
True, it's notwar, nobody died, the nation is not in peril. It is not like losing a loved one or a job or receiving a terminal diagnosis. It doesn't matter in the way those matter. Games are the way people and nations test themselves against others without doing any harm. It hurts to lose but handling a loss is part of the test.
New Zealand has not previously handled rugby losses well, particularly at the game's World Cup. Will we do better this time? There are reasons to think we might. This one is different most obviously because the All Blacks were bidding for a third victory in succession. This is not 1999, 2003 or 2007 when increasingly it seemed the All Blacks could never win when it counted most.
Dejected All Blacks and coaching staff gather after their loss to England in the World Cup semi-final match. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Another reason is that New Zealand is a more confident country now than it was when the All Blacks were last knocked out of a World Cup. It came through the 2008-09 global financial crises and recession sooner than most. Its recovery, assisted by the Canterbury earthquake rebuild, attracted record immigration year after year.
The population, almost static for so long, has surged to nearly 5 million and it is much more ethnically diverse. The political reaction to diverse immigration in other Western countries has not appeared here. This year in fact, New Zealand's Prime Minister presented an inspiring image to the world of empathy for victims of a hate crime that has no place here.
This is now a country that can draw strength and pride from much more than its national rugby team, though that does not denigrate its value to the country in any way. If anyone doubts what coach Steve Hansen and his All Blacks have achieved, look again at England's victory in the semifinal on Saturday night.
All Blacks bow to the crowd after their loss to England in the World Cup semi-final match. Photo / Mark Mitchell
England played more like the All Blacks of recent years, not like Northern Hemisphere teams usually do. Hansen, from the moment he succeeded Graham Henry in 2012, took the All Blacks to a higher level of pace, accuracy and width of play than even Henry achieved.
Teams that could not match them for speed and skill resorted to aggressive defence, which can gain territory without the ball. If England had beaten the All Blacks with no more than defence it would have been a setback for rugby. Instead we have seen some fine rugby at this World Cup from the All Blacks, England and, most valuably, the hosts, Japan.
Defeat hurts, as it should, and this defeat was devastating. It cannot be blamed on a referee or anyone else. We were outplayed on the day, as can happen to the best in any sport. But days like that make the good days better in sport, as in life.
