What a world cup it's turning out to be.

England and France through to the semi finals, Australia and New Zealand through security and on the plane back home.

Now some misguided fools will say that the 'North' of the title clearly demonstrated that Northern hemisphere rugby is back on top.

Rubbish.

160 minutes or so of rugby on a Saturday afternoon in October doesn't reverse a trend that's been going on for longer than 4 years despite England's win at the last RWC.

All it showed was that England and France through skill, passion, execution, rub of the green, the inadequacies of the men in the middle and on the sidelines, and the all important 'X' factor were better on the day than their southern counterparts.

And is the all important 'X' factor quantifiable or is it a little je ne sais quoi as the the French would say?  It's quantifiable in my opinion, and it's called intelligence.

Why Australia kicked away possession when they had the beating of England's back line, and why NZ decided to play a NH forward oriented game when what was needed was more air on the ball (and not from McAllister's foot) comes down to intelligence.

Perhaps the North v South of the title could be a metaphor for the triumph of the 'north' part of the body, the head.