With two years to go until the world’s third-largest sports event kicks off across 13 venues in New Zealand, RNZ 2011 has announced the ticket pricing structure for the largest global sporting event ever to be hosted in the country.

And I can now face intentionally talking about sport and rugby in particular!

Prior to my return to the Fern (I don't think I'd posted since October 6th) I'd not seen a single rugby match and barely a highlight for three weeks. It must be the lure of S14 squads being named in a couple of days but I'm starting to get my footy mojo back.

Phew. It wasn't that I was deliberately avoiding rugby and don't begrudge South Africa's glory in any way, I just dramatically lost interest in a split second, following four years of steadily increasing anticipation, amplified by (it now seems) exalted expectations of the All Blacks' performance levels.

Right. Time has come. Watched every game. IMHO the form players of the Tournament in their respective positions.

1. Sheridan ENG
Part of an unforgettable England revival and proved once more that he's the best loosehead in the world. Immense player.

2. John Smit
South African lineout was flawless. Won the world cup. Every team needs a captain. He's the one who makes it into this team.

3. Hayman NZL
At least 2 All Blacks have to get on the board. Sorry if I get flamed for being one eyed. Hayman's never put a foot wrong. He has the reputation and he didn't let anyone down. Vickery gets an honorable mention.

Wanted to clear all the emotional stuff before commenting on the game.

Dull, ugly call it what you like. Thats finals rugby and I expect it. I see this year in year out in Paarl. THE important game in every players life make them play like that.

A forward tussle de-Luxe and we knew the English would come for us in the scrums. I could see before every touch, pause , engage call  the determination on Os and CJ's faces not to fold in the scrums, because that would be secret for the Bokke success. Os was enormous like usual and sad to see our big hero go, but also glad he could end it this way. Smit was good and Bismarck even better when he played a few minutes. Bakkies, Matfield and Juan probably win us the game with their steals in the lineout. Schalkie a bit in the silent mode and Danie trysaver was great.

In this competition its important to take it one game at a time. No futher thinking. We have done that. The only time the Bokke took their eye off, it nearly cost them against Tonga. That game put all the focus back on their campaign. Well now its the final, the last one and the biggest one.

Hello, I'm David Moffett.
I'm speaking at you today to let you know, that I'm right, alright?

I'm right about the fact that the NZRU is in disarray and that our great nation is now in a turmoil unseen since the North Island versus South Island civil wars when slavery was abolished in 1925.

And I'm right about the fact that Graham Henry got it all wrong. Okay?

Since the day I got shafted I've been saying "They're not going to win the cup unless I'm at the helm ", and whaddya know? Once again David Moffett was right. Right as a whale.

At the heart of the defeats this weekend has been the capability of the Northern Hemisphere teams to learn lessons from their hidings at the hands of Southern Hemisphere tormenters. There is no flattery like imitation like and you should try and take some comfort from that.

To set the scene, the Guardian a few weeks ago had an (as usual) excellent article from Sean Edwards (Wasps Coach) on why the Southies were tearing the Northern lot a new a-hole. Permit me to quote him a moment:

I’ve read with horror several reports of some distasteful reactions to the All Blacks loss.  There are some petty, selfish, spiteful people out there. 

I’m a New Zealander and proud of it.  I’m an All Black fan and proud of it.  The All Blacks are a part of me and I’m a part of the All Blacks.

Discovering that there are people who seem to think the All Blacks owe them personally, and act as if they have been personally affronted by the fact that they happened to finish a rugby game 2 point behind another fantastic team to the point where All Black flags are burned (I mean how old are you?) are New Zealanders is kind of like discovering there is no Santa Claus. 

The All Blacks making an early exit from the World Cup is now best understood as an enactment of an ancient ritual – and for those seeking to overcome their anguish, there is potential solace in an analysis of the elements and power of this particular ritual.

Google defines ritual as an “action performed because of its symbolic significance and its ability to evoke the emotions of those engaged in the performance”.

First among those engaged in the performance is the media itself. The media loves ritual because ritual by definition is highly formalised and predictable. Predictability has utility for journalists because the story can be prewritten. The script is a boilerplate.

Hello, my name is Wayne Barnes. For those of you who do not know me, I was the referee in the France versus All Blacks quarterfinal at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

I wanted to be a referee since a young age when my dearest Daddy sent me to a nice little all boys school in southern England. The big boys (and even the little boys) picked on me and turned me into the wiener that I am today.  One of those mean little boys was a New Zealander; he made me cry to Mummy all night after poking me with a small twig.

Well, according to me anyway.

EXPECTATION & PRESSURE
It must be hard being an All Black and having that legacy at your back all the time. But, this time the expectation looked to be too much. It started wit the Lions victory bu that portentous Adidas ad set the tone for the nostalgia-needy NZ public but then they went and gave the players dirt to take with them to France. Dirt - I ask you! Dirt from the grounds of the all clubs that supplied the ABs. Jeez, way to ramp up the expectation and leave the guys in no doubt what's at stake.

They didn’t choke. They were choked by a better rugby team with better players, a better strategy, greater discipline and a stronger mindset.

And if it was a choke then it began 2 years ago at Twickenham and the poor blubbering fools took until last Saturday to realise the fanciful rubbish about their improvement and superiority, spoken by their coaches and echoed by a too compliant media, was firmly stuck in their throats.  Australia has almost stood still during that time and anyone who dared to say so (eg. Ella, Campo, Poedevin) was shouted down for being too old and out of touch.

Was the ref as bad as we thought ? Was the Luke sin-bin unwarranted ? Was the forward pass glaringly obvious?

Ref wasn’t great, but you're not doing yourselves any favours if you blame him for the defeat.

The sin-bin was reasonable, although half the time you'd probably get away without a card. Luke deliberately blocked him, and didn’t do a great job of hiding the intent, which made the decision more likely.

Well, dust settling, thoughts getting less black, so lets look back at a few things that have led to this latest RWC debacle.

First up, did the rotation work, and did the rest and recreation work (well, the recovery and reconditioning period thingy, whatever it was bloody called - the bit when the All Blacks were rebuilt - bigger, stronger, faster), that is the question.  The obvious answer is, well, no.  In fact, the an emphatic no, as the best prepared All Black RWC squad ever, turned into the worst RWC result ever, a quarter final exit.  Shades of the Lions in 2005, but I digress...

However, I want to look a little beyond the bleedingly obvious, and see what good and bad, if any, there is in all these R's that have come to plague our rugby language - a pity these R's don't include RUCKING, a glorious lost art, but that is another story altogether.

Te refute that bleedingly obvious answer, that none of the above worked, is mainly another question, unanswerable, "Well, would anything have changed if we had not R&R&R's??  Answer to that one, no bloody idea, as we did R&R, and we we got what we got. 

I have two questions (which may be linked, but don't have to be):

1.  When did pre-match crowing become a part of Kiwi Culture?

2.  What purpose does sacking The Cartel really achieve?

Kiwi Culture

I should preface these remarks by observing that I have been an expat for the last 15 years (nearly a third of my life).  Two weeks at home each year, daily web-site visits (The Herald, Stuff and TSF) and compulsive rugby watching is the only way  I have been able to maintain contact with my Kiwi heritage. 

OK, the world famous in Valley Road, Mount Maunganui, player ratings.  A hard call this week, a bit difficult to give every one a zero, as there were some half decent performances from this mob here, and some not so decent too...

Units first, forwards and backs.

Backs  -  2/10.
The worst display of football from a backline since the local married singles game saw yours truly at second five, and prop Cyril at first.  In fact, it might not have been as bad as that, as when we got tired, we passed it out to the rest of the backline, who made some good yards and were quite creative...

Here's the first comprehensive analysis I'll have made since the 2004 flat backline controversy in any sort of written form.

I'd first like to say I'm speechless, gutted, still shaking and in morbid disbelief of what has just happened. But I'm also philosophical about the whole thing. I'm young, so I haven't had to live through the devastations of 1991 and 1995 with the same rabid nationalism as I do today and like all of us here on the TSF, I am a student of the game. This is, as I see it, the worst loss New Zealand Rugby has ever faced on the world stage (that bars Munster). This is my honest analysis.

It has been a day now since the All Blacks surrendered to Les Blues at Cardiff, and while it still hurts for we fans, think how much it is hurting for the All Blacks right now too.  On Radio Sport this morning I heard some reporter saying that Mils Muliaina was crying while talking to him today (apparently Mils one of the more approachable and comment friendly ABs), and listening to Richie McCaw, "it is harder today than it was yesterday".  So while it hurts for you and I, it ain't nothing folks!