RWC2011 - It's A Wrap!

And so the 2011 version of the Rugby World Cup is over. I started and ended with the same blip!

A huge congratulations to New Zealand, worthy winners. They finally are the bride and no longer the bridesmaid!

A brilliant final yesterday, worthy of an excellent tournament in the end.

The record of the team winning the cup being undefeated throughout the competition continues, and so it should. No one can argue the best team won it or not when you have beaten all that have gone before you!

My final thoughts on the tournament.

First the Welsh! As I said yesterday ... it was hard to bear for Wales! A few missed kicks and they would have been in the final. The red card argument will rumble on. At the end of the day, the tackle was dangerous, and the law allows the red card to be given, intent doesn't come in to it. The referee isn't there to win friends and make a spectacle of the game, he is the there to apply the law. In the end we were all arguing how much Warburton had transgressed rather than if he had transgressed at all!

The world cup opened and closed with a contentious decision for Wales. The penalty that never was, and we would have beaten South Africa.

Let's face it. We didn't even think we would get out of the group a few months back, and finishing fourth is no disgrace.

Wales final report card. B+ overall. A+ for effort .. definitely work in progress!

The IRB will need to look after themselves after this tournament. The treatment of the second tier nations was nothing short of scandalous. To play four games in a fortnight,. when the big boys go four weeks has to change in four years time, or else the whole competition will lack credibility.

Nigel Owens shouldn't have been picked to referee a game in the same pool as Wales, and the fine for France for approaching the Haka was a nonsense! (I am back blipping this .. I chose the French shirt as my rugby game didn't have an All Blacks one, it's a home nations game!)

The next Six Nations should be a bit tasty. Wales will be on a high. England will be trying to correct the shambles of their tournament. Ireland stand at a cross roads of their development. Italy continue to make headway. Scotland would be a threat if they could find some backs with pace .. and France! What can you say about France .. the eternal enigma!

Bring on February I say!