Gerry Thornley: Rugby wins as cup overflows with quality

That was the 2015 World Cup that was, and by any yardstick, it was the best so far. Record tickets, record television audiences, the revenue target of €350 million, to return a surplus of over €112 million to World Rugby.

But what made it the best, above all else, was the rugby itself.

Blessed with an Indian summer in the north, the Southern Hemisphere lorded it over the Northern Hemisphere, but leaving that aside, it was easier to single out the duds (Italy v anybody springs to mind) than the many crackers.

Pick a game of the tournament, and the list of contenders is endless. We thought Japan-South Africa couldn’t be bettered, and it was, a week later, when Wales – resourceful, inspired Wales – undid England at Twickenham. On it continued with compelling games every week.

The tier two nations were more competitive than four years ago. Indeed the average winning margin between tier one and tier two teams has steadily, if marginally, decreased from 45 points in 2003, to 39 in 2007, 38 in 2011 and 31 in 2015. The average winning margin of 22 also made it the most competitive World Cup finals.

The All Blacks were indisputably the best team of the four-year cycle and the six weeks-plus of the tournament itself, to provide and ensure the perfect Test swansong for Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Ma'a Nonu, Conrad Smith and Keven Mealamu and possibly more.

Never have the All Blacks been more popular champions. Good blokes, as Steve Hansen said, with good values who happen to be fairly handy at rugby, and they also did so by beating Argentina, South Africa and Australia.

Dominant

Of course, they had been the best team of four-year cycles for many of the previous World Cups which New Zealand did not win (’95, ’99, ’03 and ’07 spring to mind), which only made their last two triumphs all the sweeter for them and even for the rest of us. They haven’t become boringly dominant. Yet anyway.

Off the pitch, it was pretty good too.

Yes, Irish supporters reported of being held in queues of three hours and one hour before evading Cardiff and Wembley after the wins over Canada and Romania.

Yes, a World Cup is almost completely lost outside the environs of Twickenham and Richmond in such a vast, cosmopolitan city as London. But London’s infrastructure works. Everything pretty much runs on time. It has to, for it to work. But if Ireland is to host the 2023 tournament, it needs to improve its public transport especially, and its roads.

Rugby stadia worked better than borrowed football grounds, and in many respects it remains a rich man’s game, but despite the high ticket pricing and grossly over-priced Cardiff hotels (and Irish flights), almost every match was played to the backdrop of a full house.

Rugby has taken more than its fair share of pot shots over the years from other sports, some of it justifiable, and will do so again. But this World Cup, after all, came at time when José Mourinho and his ilk have been bringing football into disrepute on an almost weekly basis.

Salary cap

And, to maintain a balance, it also comes at a time when the garish and self-interested values of the Top 14 and the English Premiership have been typified by the latter's umbrella organisation sweeping claims of Saracens breaking the salary cap underneath the carpet, prompting The Times to maintain there should be an asterisk beside that club's title win last season.

Viewed in that light, the 2015 Rugby World Cup has been a pure tonic for the game.

Indeed, far from underlining fears that professionalism would endanger the game’s ethos, this tournament has, if anything, enhanced rugby’s supposed sporting values and ethos.

You think back to the All Blacks welcoming the Springboks for the infamous 1981 tour, blighted by the utterly justifiable protests against apartheid which divided the two islands of New Zealand in two again. Or the often bitter and frequently violent series which, had they been televised, would probably have led to the sport being banned.

Then you fast forward to the semi-final last Saturday week, a brutally physical encounter in the rain, out of kilter with the rest of the tournament, and yet it was also a manifestation of the mutual respect that has developed between the All Blacks and the Springboks.

After the shaking of hands and formation of reciprocal cordons which marked the end of all 48 matches, as with Steve Hansen in victory, Heyneke Meyer and Schalk Burger couldn’t have been more sporting or generous in defeat. Meyer declined to indulge in “loser talk” after embracing Hansen and going on to the pitch to congratulate Richie McCaw,

Mistake

Yes, we in Ireland will never forget Burger gouging Luke Fitzgerald in the Lions series in 2009, but in addition to his generosity in defeat he also held his hand up and admitted “it was probably my mistake” which cost them the semi-final when he lost the ball in contact in the build-up to Beauden Barrett’s match-winning try.

Meyer had been as dignified in defeat as he had been after the Boks’ shock opening loss to Japan, and the four pressure-cooker wins in between.

For him alone you were glad the Boks regained their pride. He’s a good man, a good rugby man.

It’s too easy to draw a line between the hemispheres and lump all the Six Nations together. Given their resources, England and France were lamentable failures; Wales, Scotland and Ireland comparatively glorious failures who gave the tournament plenty more.

And what of Ireland? Judgment is hard to make on a team that was shorn of five of its most important players. Even the All Blacks might have struggled without a quintet of Brodie Retallick, Jerome Kaino, McCaw, Dan Carter and Conrad Smith.

Fully loaded

Injuries are more likely to hit squads starting out on their seasons, ie those from Europe, than those from the Southern Hemisphere, as Dr Liam Hennessy has stated. So it was that Ireland and Wales arrived at the quarter-finals without a truck-load of key personnel. By contrast, South Africa and Argentina arrived at the semi-finals locked and fully loaded, as did New Zealand and Australia at the final.

As David Pocock noted when overcoming his calf ailment, twice broken nose and facial battering in the build-up to the final: “It’s getting towards the end of the season, you’ve played a lot of rugby and your body gets used to recovering.”

But the best thing about it all? Tries won matches. Repeatedly. Like no World Cup before. Maybe it will catch on.

gthornley@irishtimes.com

From the best to the rest: Read Gerry Thornley's country-by-country report here