It Isn’t Easy Going Back to Green (Oct. 8)

As you can see we’re no longer All Black With NZ, meaning that either NZ has won the Rugby World Cup or has crashed out of it. If you’re following the RWC at all you know that the latter has unfortunately happened, the All Blacks having lost a crushing defeat to the French in Cardiff yesterday morning, 20-18. Like the rest of New Zealand we’re gutted by this loss, as it was a heartbreaker.

Heavily favored to win this year’s RWC, the All Blacks came in looking like world-beaters, having lost only 5 matches over the past four years. After a far-too-easy first round RWC group, however, the ABs hadn’t had a challenge in beating the likes of Portugal and Romania in what were little more than glorified exhibition matches. The doomsayers were correct that this was poor preparation for a game against the French, a side that shocked the ABs in the 1999 semifinals.

In the past few weeks, no one from the sports media to the NZ public rated the French as having much of a chance, especially given their surprise loss to the Argentines in group play. Additionally, the ABs gave a visiting French side several sound thrashings in their NZ tour earlier this year. Having never lost before the semifinal round in a RWC, it was also unthinkable for the boys in black to lose this early.

However, the French didn’t read this script and came out defiant, standing up to the ABs’ haka, and giving no quarter, especially on defense. Though they were undoubtedly aided by some very questionable refereeing, especially on a yellow card on the ABs’ Luke McAlister and a missed call on a terribly blatant forward pass on what was France’s winning try late in the 2^nd half, the French certainly played hard enough to win. In the end the AB’s didn’t get it done, and the French were jubilant. From our perspective, it was one of the most nerve-wracking sporting events I’ve watched, and when the French showed life in the 2^nd half I began to have a sinking feeling, like it just wasn’t the ABs’ day.

At the moment, we’re out on an island in the Marlborough Sounds but I’m sure the rest of the country is in a serious funk. They love their rugby and their ABs here, and I imagine most of NZ will be having a ‘case of the Mondays’ tomorrow. Expect heaps of recriminations and self-flagellating commentary here, but all I know is that we’re bumming. Between the Penn State-Michigan game and now this, it hasn’t been a good few weeks for us in sport, and this certainly is not the way we wanted to go back to Green. I’d say c’est la vie, but it just might be too soon to use a French phrase ‘round these parts. For now, All Blacks fans will have to wait another 4 long years until the 2011 RWC, which will be held here in NZ. Where there’ll be no pressure on that squad, I’m sure!