Mathew Browne

And congratulations to South Africa, deserving world champions. I must say, I’m glad that they won but it’s a shame that the final went without a try being scored – not a good advert for the sport as it was rather dull. That, however, has been England’s game and it had worked well for them until tonight.

I’m now left with that deflated feeling one tends to get at the end of a party or on the night of December 25th – what am I going to do with my weekends now? I guess I only have a few months to wait until the Six Nations.

The competition really has been the story of the underdogs.

• England, after suffering a 36-0 defeat to South Africa in the pool stage, go on to reach the final.
• Argentina shock France on the opening night…
• …Then they wipe the floor with them in the 3rd place playoff
• Fiji steal a 38-34 win from Wales to knock them out of the tournament at the pool stage.
• Georgia come within a whisker of beating Ireland.
• Tonga’s amazing comeback (and near victory) against South Africa 30-25

The list goes on. It really has been quite amazing to watch, especially the better-than-expected performances by the so-called “minnows” of the rugby world cup against the established sides. I was in St. David’s Centre in Cardiff when Portugal scored against New Zealand, to an enormous, rapturous ovation by the Welsh AND Australian fans in attendance. The perceived gulf of standard between the minnows and the established nations is narrowing, but such sides really need to be in regular competition against other good teams. Once every four years simply isn’t good enough.

What happens next? Well, Wales have a friendly against the newly-crowned world champions South Africa in November. Wales, whose form has been disappointing at best, are without a coach. I am debating picking up some tickets to the game. The probability of witnessing a hiding is high, which would make this an unattractive prospect if I was a fair-weather supporter. Alas, I’m not.