Join host Alex Chapman with special guests Buck Shelford and Michaela Blyde as they review the England v South Africa RWC Final and the All Blacks v Wales Bronze Final. VIDEO/Spark Sport/RWC/Mark Mitchell/AP/SNTV/Photo Sport/Getty Images/allblacks.com/TVNZ
COMMENT:
Seven talking points from the last games at the Rugby World Cup.
Good guys can finish first
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is living proof that decent behaviour and success are not mutually exclusive. Some Kiwis can't cop Eddie Jones (although I'd put him alongside 1991 Cup coach Bob Dwyeras a good bloke, with a keen sense of humour, who, like Dwyer, sometimes can't resist making a little mischief) but I'd defy anyone to dislike how Erasmus conducts himself.
Erasmus saying, "rugby shouldn't be something that creates pressure. It should be something that creates hope", after South Africa's 32-12 win over England in the World Cup final would have hinted at public relations spin from some others.
But Erasmus has been so open and honest when South Africa have struggled, his words in victory feel straight from the heart.
...or you can choose to behave like a spoilt, entitled brat
Maro Itoje deserved his player of the day title when England owned the semifinal with the All Blacks, 19-7.
But refusing to have a silver medal placed around his neck after the final was a petulant reminder of how being a very good player doesn't mean you'll always behave with class off the field.
No Stephen, the final in 2007 was garbage. This one was pretty good
I should record, having first met Stephen Jones in 1987, that away from a keyboard he's very likeable.
And I do realise, as one of his colleagues from the Times stable in London once pointed out to me, that "poor Stephen must struggle with the fact he's a Welshman having to make a living writing for English rugby fans".
But it was just churlish, after the orgasmic heights Jones reached last week when England beat the All Blacks, for him to dismiss South Africa beating England in the final in Yokohama as a game that was "poor, often wretched".
No, it wasn't.
Springboks captain Siya Kolisi lifts the Web Ellis Cup. Photo / Getty Images
The semifinal the Springboks played with Wales in Tokyo was wretched.
The tryless final in '07 when South Africa beat England 15-6 (five penalty goals to two) in Paris was wretched.
But the 2019 final initially had red meat for the purist, with the Boks' ferocious tackling and scrummaging, and then provided two sparkling tries from the backs for the more casual fan.
That 'whirring' sound was the Iron Lady spinning in her grave
If the sensationally good performance by England against the All Blacks was about as efficiently brutal as the way Maggie Thatcher crushed the miners in the 1970s, England in the final were reduced to echoing Boris Johnson stumbling through Brexit.
England head coach Eddie Jones and the Springboks' Rassie Erasmus. Photo / Getty Images
Like BoJo the England team couldn't find a Plan B once Plan A, in Steve Hansen's perfect summation, of passing to a big guy and having him smash the ball up, failed to work.
That knighthood for Eddie will have gone back into a cupboard at Buck House.
His parents named him Conrad, but Nostradamus would have been fair, too
A couple of days ago I mentioned here how Conrad Smith had suggested that "it's almost impossible to play your best game two or three times in a row".
He was referring to the All Black teams he'd been in that won the Cup in 2011 and 2015, but in the process had very squeaky wins next up after a golden game.
He inspired me on Friday on Newstalk ZB to pick South Africa to win the final.
If only, as they say, I'd had the backbone to put my money where my mouth was I might have been writing these words from my yacht in the Bahamas.
No more Faffing around
What feels like an age ago, when the All Blacks beat South Africa, 23-13, in pool play, I was harshly critical of Faf de Klerk, the Springbok halfback, whose game in that clash was poor.
So it seems fair to note that the tough little guy was inspirational in the Yokohama final.
De Klerk was born in Mbombela (called Nelspruit until 2009) at the gateway to Kruger Park, home of the honey badger, the small but fearless creature that starred in a series of videos on the net fighting and beating cobras and leopards.
When de Klerk sprang at English giants like Billy Vunipola and Maro Itoje and snarling and wrestling dragged them to the ground the famous phrase from those nature videos "honey badger don't give a s***" sprang to mind.
Dear Lord, imagine what would have been written if they'd won the final
In Tokyo in the week before the final I tried to read what the British rugby commentators said about England's totally convincing win over the All Blacks.
I waded through one story suggesting it wasn't just the best rugby victory of the year, but the best victory in any sport in the whole world in 2019.
I tried to keep my chin from quivering when the Mail on Sunday suggested England had "poured money into Eddie Jones and his regime for exactly this: For getting past the All Blacks, for debunking them and destroying them. For trying to make England the gold standard again, just as they were in the days of Martin Johnson and Jonny Wilkinson".
But there wasn't enough masochist in me to keep going when, in the Independent, Jack de Menezes wrote of the semifinal: "Just how good a performance was this? It is incredibly hard to argue against it being the greatest ever, given the level of performance, the domination of the contact area and the supremacy that they held over rugby's most consistent team."
The best bronze playoff ever?
Somehow I've managed to avoid ever going to the game for third at a World Cup, but the All Blacks' 40-17 win over Wales in Tokyo was worth changing the habit of a lifetime for.
Ben Smith was back to his best in the All Blacks' bronze medal playoff win against Wales. Photo / Getty Images
As a farewell for so many in the All Black squad, from coach and captain through the playing ranks, and into the management staff, it was fitting that the team finished, if not with the bang of a third Cup win in a row, at least not with the whimper of a loss in the game for bronze.
And it was somehow fitting that Ben Smith proved yet again that you don't need to be as big as Dwayne Johnson to be dynamic and strong on a rugby field.
