Five thoughts for the final weekend of World Cup 2015

And so to the final

The two best teams in RWC 2015 lock horns Saturday at Twickenham for the Webb Ellis Cup, and what a difficult game it is to call.

New Zealand were composure personified and at their masterful and magisterial best in the semi-finals as they held off a physically imposing but limited South Africa far more comfortably than the two-point winning margin indicates.

The All Blacks, though, face a completely different type of challenge from Australia who, as they have shown in consecutive victories over England, Wales, Scotland and Argentina, now pose threats across the entire pitch thanks to the tremendous renaissance being enjoyed under coach Michael Cheika whose heart-on-sleeve passion has struck a chord with many in the game.

New Zealand may be the narrow favourites but that tag will count for little in what appears certain to be a close encounter of the most compelling kind.

Opportunity knocks

The winners of tomorrow’s game will, barring a freak setback or incident, be the team that can keep hold of the ball the longest.

Such an obvious observation but, in reality, it’s extremely hard to achieve the dominance required when a contest such as this brings together so many ace opportunists.

In the green and gold corner, for example, we have the tournament’s leading turnover exponent in David Pocock on 14, way ahead of nearest All Black rival Kieran Read whose tally has reached five.

Read, though, stands tall in the opposite corner as the top line-out stealer in the competition with six strikes to his name, one ahead of team-mate Brodie Retallick and two clear of Dean Mumm who has largely been used as a replacement by Australia.

Get the ball, keep it, score. Get it back, keep it some more, score again, win. Simple.

Fitting farewell?

It would almost be worthy of a Hollywood script if Richie McCaw and Dan Carter should sign off from the World Cup with the final victory all New Zealand is craving.

We hear often enough that it’s not enough for a Kiwi rugby player to become an All Black, the burning desire is to become a great All Black and this is a status both men achieved long ago.

So, for one last time on the biggest stage of all and regardless of who you support, it’s a moment to fully appreciate the scavaging skills of a truly inspirational leader in the shape of McCaw as well as the poise, subtlety and beauty that Carter has brought to the role of playmaker along with his dead-eye goalkicking.

They’ve often made what they do look easy when, of course, it’s ridiculously hard.

Simply the best

While debate about the merits of the finalists could go on forever without being settled one way or another until the whistle is blown for the last time, there’s no doubt in any quarter that the best referee in the competition has been asked to take charge.

Nigel Owens has been terrific, officiating with empathy, wisdom and no little humour. Stuart Hogg could yet go on to become a legend of the sport, a poet laureate and even win a Nobel Prize but, when the time comes, somewhere near the top of his sporting obituary will be the withering put-down delivered by Owens when the Scotland full-back tumbled to the ground against South Africa at Newcastle United’s St James’s Park rather too easily for the official’s liking.

“Dive like that again,” he intoned, “and you can come back here again in two weeks and play. Not today. Watch out!” For that off the cuff remark alone he deserves the final.

Two bald men fighting over a comb

That’s one way to describe the play-off for third and fourth place which Friday night pitched South Africa against Argentina at London’s Olympic Park.

World Rugby prefers the label ‘bronze final’ while I can barely think of anything positive to say about a game which has been a part of the World Cup since it started in 1987 but which I find completely pointless.

Yes there was an enthusiastic crowd complete with party atmosphere as well as a big TV audience to keep sponsors happy and the money rolling in. But I did feel for the players who, after all the emotion and heartbreak of a semi-final defeat, had to somehow dust themselves down once again for the say-so greater good.

— The author is an expert on rugby