The French have responded to their limp display against England by lashing out with the one advantage they should always hold over their neighbours: fashion sense.
One writer has lambasted England's playing strip for turning the semi-final into a wet T-shirt competition after the "chilly downpour that made their body-hugging uniforms
translucent and clingy" which left them looking "as if they were wearing badly chosen naughty underwear".
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A true post-match story: Graeme Burnett is a New Zealander in Singapore. He got a half-time call from a friend, Rob, in Feilding, had a quick chat and promised to ring him after the game.
"I rang Rob back 20 minutes after the ABs lost. I had a natter with him. I was a bit pie-eyed and thought it sounds a bit like Rob's getting a cold ...
"I asked what did his wife think and he said Niki was really cheesed off. I said good night and hung up. Rob's wife is Karen. I had just spent 10 minutes talking to a complete stranger in New Zealand commiserating about the loss."
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There was no relief for Kiwis attempting a quick runner on a Qantas flight from Sydney to Auckland on Sunday morning. After the usual queues and departure tax they were cheered even further by the flight's smiling customer service manager, John Leask, wearing his gold Wallaby jersey. As a kicker the in-flight film was The Night We Called it a Day.
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Kees Meeuws has been getting big wraps in Oz for taking the heat off Aussie prop Ben Darwin when his neck threatened to pretzel as their scrum collapsed yet again. A Daily Telegraph editorial said Meeuws' mercy "speaks volumes about the spirit in which rugby is played - about the code of real sportsmanship in which rugby players take genuine and lasting pride. On Saturday, Meeuws was the embodiment of that spirit - as were the entire All Blacks team who remained wonderfully gallant in what must have been an absolutely heartbreaking defeat." Cheers, but we can probably do without the sympathy.
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England may have a game plan you could scribble on the head of a pin, but that hasn't prevented Clive Woodward from tearing his hair out - oops too late - over the possibility of spies rumbling his top secret tactics. The team has admitted they have their own snooper-stopper who uses a matchbox-sized electronic device to check every room they use for bugs. Apparently it's been standard practice for two years.
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