EDITORIAL:
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 not war, 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.
