OPINION
Chris Rattue runs through the best and worst from the Rugby World Cup.
WINNERS: All Blacks, obviously, and again.
Right, here goes, famous last words and all that.
Rugby World Cup 2023: Winners and losers from the quarter-finals - Chris Rattue
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Ian Foster and Sam Cane pose for a photo in the New Zealand dressing room. Photo / Getty Images
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The All Blacks will win their World Cup semi-final. They are into the final.
I can’t see the Argentina that beat Wales living with the All Blacks who beat Ireland. The two quarter-finals were on different planets.
The only potential banana skin is not ability.
The World Cup is littered with great performances being followed by duds (a la the English in 2019) and fatigue is a big factor.
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World Cup tournaments are draining on the mind and body. The All Blacks had a soft lead-in to the Ireland game, but the mental pressure would still have been great.
These All Blacks will go from heroes to absolute zeroes if they blow this semi-final.
Can’t see it happening though. They’ve even got the thought of Michael Cheika’s grin to spur them on.
As for the final though - a completely different story if they come up against South Africa or France. I wouldn’t fancy the All Blacks’ chances against either.
WINNER: Sam Cane
The All Blacks captain got an incredible reception in the victory over Ireland, and that was just from the Sky commentary team.
He’s had a strange captaincy career. People instinctively like the bloke but doubt that he’s good enough.
One of the problems is that openside flankers can’t fly around the field in starring roles like they did in the days of Michael Jones and even, much more recently, Richie McCaw.
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The best test rugby, and we just saw a prime example of it, is now fought entirely in the trenches. Even Cane’s detractors would admit that he is lionhearted.
WINNER: Rugby
The accolades have been flowing for a brilliant quarter-final between New Zealand and Ireland.
There is no better sport to watch anywhere, when rugby is played like that with so much on the line. And those incredible European stadiums and crowds play a huge part in creating the drama.
LOSER: The World Cup ...
... with the Irish crowd no longer having any skin in the game. Thank you, Ireland, for what you have given rugby for quite a few years now.
WINNER: Richie Mo’unga
The mercurial No 10 has never stamped his mark on the All Blacks. Like Sam Cane, he’s been unable to emerge from the shadow of previous greats. But Mo’unga showed enough to suggest in this quarter-final that he has the confidence to guide this team to a World Cup triumph.
The Ireland victory might be the belated making of Richie Mo’unga, who is off to Japan on a three-year deal.
This sort of scenario should make New Zealand Rugby rethink its muddled overseas selection rules. It is crazy to think that after negotiating all the ups and downs of his test career to the point that dividends may appear in abundance, Mo’unga will go into a long hibernation, one that could end his test career. He is only 29.
Seriously - New Zealand rugby isn’t strong enough to allow things like that to happen.
LOSER: The All Blacks’ future
Behind the growing smiles there is a huge problem. The quality of players coming through doesn’t match what we’ve seen in the All Blacks squad over the past decade and more.
This team is still surviving on old legends like Brodie Retallick, Aaron Smith and even (unbelievably) Dane Coles. There’s nobody remotely in their class coming through.
WINNER: Fozzie ...
Ian Foster might even go out with a bang in a fortnight. He’s already gone a long way to saving his reputation though, bringing down one of the great teams in modern-day rugby.
WINNER/LOSER: Epics/coverage of epic victories
The word “epic” is dominating media descriptions of the quarter-final in which New Zealand beat Ireland, and rightly so. The game was so good it almost rose above the distressingly-gushy elements of Sky’s post-match coverage. Not all of the coverage was bad. Some ex-All Blacks were quite good. But some of it was awful. Goodness knows what depths it will sink to if the All Blacks actually win the tournament.
LOSER: Caelan Doris
A game like the All Blacks-Ireland quarter-final has plenty of pivotal points, and some are more understandable than others.
But the Irish No 8 had no excuses for spilling a goal-line restart as the game headed towards its unforgettable climax.
Ireland were poised to launch their bid for victory. The Doris Drop is one of rugby’s famous stuff-ups.
LOSER: Northern Hemisphere
At the time of writing, two north v south quarter-finals had yet to be played. But the first two results were a reminder that the southern hemisphere has dominated the World Cup since 1987.
LOSER: Oft-injured national captains
First Sam Cane, now Kane Williamson ... frustrating.
WINNERS/LOSERS: The Black Caps
This was supposed to be a rugby column but ...
The Kiwi cricketers keep turning up unlikely heroes such as the late-blooming Daryl Mitchell. The Black Caps look like decent World Cup semi-final prospects.
It’s a pity the cricket showpiece is tangled up with rugby’s World Cup (from a very New Zealand perspective). The Black Caps have big matches against Australia and India on the final rugby weekends.
