Dylan Cleaver: Best World Cup ever?

Japan produced the biggest upset in Rugby World Cup history, beating South Africa. Photo / AP

We know it was the biggest, most profitable World Cup of the eight, but best? Depends what set of measurements you want to use says Dylan Cleaver.

The rugby was good, it was more competitive and, all bias aside, the best team in the world won. So it ticks most of the boxes there.

The tournament was set alight on the opening weekend when Japan, who will play hosts in 2019, tipped over two-times winners South Africa. This was a seismic moment for the sport, the first real evidence that those outside the 10 Six Nations or Rugby Championship sides could make quantifiable improvements and be more than plucky losers.

This is World Rugby's next great challenge: how do you keep the countries outside the two big annual tournaments, like Japan and Georgia, competitive. Although this was the closest tournament, there was still an average margin of 22 points between teams and, to be brutally honest, this was really only kept in check because the big teams like New Zealand take a far more scientific attitude into games against minnows and have little interest in trying to pile on points or boost individual stat lines.

There were disappointments, too. Italy steadfastly refuse to make any progress and manage to play a deathly dull style while doing so. The Pacific Island teams were poor, although Fiji did show positive sides and were hamstrung by an unfair draw and placement in the Pool of Death.

On balance, though, in terms of the quality of the rugby, this tournament shades the rest, helped by having two sides in the final who like to score in multiples of seven. It was arguably the best final, though 1995 and 2003 were nerve-shredding affairs.

Off the field, the crowds have been fantastic, with empty seats a rarity (as you'd expect with 98 per cent of tickets sold and total attendance of 2,474,584).

Revenues of more than $570 million were generated by ticket sales alone, with a surplus of more than $180m. So this tournament has been an unholy cash cow that has dwarfed even France 2007 in terms of financial return.

There is something dismally unromantic about judging a tournament by the ledger but make no mistake, those that run the game will be smitten by these numbers, which keep the wheels of the sport turning in the four years between events.

It does make you fear that 'smaller' tournaments, such as New Zealand 2011 might now be seen as infeasible. That will be great shame.

In a strange way, tournaments thrive on minor controversies, and this one was no different, from a draw that was so slanted towards the major teams it made of a mockery of the concept of fair play. There was the usual judicial head-scratchers, like Tom Wood not being cited for carelessly kicking Liam Williams in the head and knocking him out, while Alesana Tuilagi got five weeks (reduced to two on appeal), for running into someone while carrying the ball.

The biggest controversy, however, belonged to Craig Joubert, who erred in awarding Australia a penalty that it kicked to win a pulsating quarter-final against Scotland. Sprinting from the field in the immediate aftermath was not wise, but the opprobrium heaped upon him was ugly and disproportionate.

Rugby's rules make it a hard game to officiate and that is not going to change in a hurry, but it was great to see Nigel Owens, one of the sport's good guys, take control of the final.

So the controversy meter ticked along to an appropriate level.

Finally, there is the intangible metric: how much did the hosts get into it? All reports suggest England and Wales were exceptional hosts, even when they went out at the pool and quarter-final stage respectively.

Rugby in England is far from all-encompassing, so it's unlikely the tournament made a huge impact in the outer reaches, like it did here four years ago. You'd seriously question whether the kids of Ipswich and Felixstowe have swapped round balls for oval as a result of the tournament - certainly, England going out early wouldn't have helped in this regard - but it looked like party time in the host cities.

Again, without being there to soak up the revelry in places like Exeter, Brighton and Newcastle, it is difficult to definitively gauge, but for total community buy-in New Zealand 2011 will always be hard to beat.

England 2015 the best ever? Yeah, nah.