KEY POINTS:
After a weekend where traditional rugby values made a stunning impact, it is scarcely believable that serious thought is being given to bringing in new rules that will turn Super rugby back into a giant pyjama party.
New Zealand rugby bosses admit it is possible that next year's
Super 14 could be played under experimental laws where the offside line is shifted five metres from the breakdown and all offences, other than foul play, are punished with free kicks.
These new laws have already been tested in club competitions in New Zealand, Australia and Scotland. The possibility looms that the Super 14 could be used as the ultimate experimental ground, with an IRB decision on whether to adopt the new rules permanently made later next year.
The initial trial results show the new rules speed up the game and turn it into a running fest. But there is also a real fear they reduce the importance of the set-piece, make rugby a game for exclusively mobile athletes, where pace and creativity are the only qualities required to thrive.
If the rugby world votes to adopt these laws globally at a prescribed date, then so be it. But why on earth would the New Zealand Rugby Union and fellow Australian and South African executives agree to be a guinea pig?
This weekend there was compelling evidence that the magic of rugby is the contrast of styles.
The world was reminded that rugby is a game where the juggernauts in the forwards can have their day as heroes, the same way as there are other teams who try to conquer by gainfully employing the hairstylists in their backs.
What we essentially got this weekend was a glorious reminder that there isn't much wrong with rugby as it is.
The rules as they are mean that someone the size of Andy Sheridan could be the hero for England against Australia, while a waif like Frederic Michalak could be the pivotal figure in France's defeat of the All Blacks.
Unless the new laws are adopted universally, the last thing New Zealand's elite players need is exposure to pat-a-cake football where teams can fling the ball around and pay no heed to how it arrived in their possession in the first place.
Tough men win tough games, plying their craft at the coalface. That is surely the lesson for New Zealand to absorb at this World Cup. And to help them learn is the financial cost of their failed campaign.
NZRU chief executive Chris Moller said: "It is no secret we want to expand our revenue offshore. It would have been easier to secure further sponsorships and to play further matches with better returns if we had been successful in this campaign.
"So I think there has been an opportunity lost."
