That's all, folks
It’ll be a short one from me today. I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for following this newsletter over the last three months. It’s really meant a lot to me and I’ve loved doing it.
With the Rugby World Cup over, that brings an end to this newsletter too. If you want to keep up to date with my work you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook.
I hope you learned something over the course of it and that you didn’t think I was too big of a spoofer. I even got a few predictions right along the way (remember when I said South Africa were well set to win the World Cup?).
One of my stranger predictions was an attempt to pick a team of the tournament before the World Cup kicked off. Here’s what I came up with:
15. Beauden Barrett (New Zealand), 14. Cheslin Kolbe (South Africa), 13. Anton Lienert-Brown (New Zealand), 12. Samu Kerevi (Australia), 11. Jonny May (England), 10. Owen Farrell (England), 9. Faf de Klerk (South Africa); 1. Joe Moody (New Zealand), 2. Jamie George (England), 3. Kyle Sinckler (England), 4. James Ryan (Ireland), 5. Alun Wyn Jones (Wales), 6. Michael Leitch (Japan), 7. Pieter-Steph du Toit (South Africa), 8. Kieran Read (New Zealand).
The real team of the tournament
And for those of you interested, here’s what my team of the tournament looks like now. Having watched all 47 games at this year’s tournament (I am ignoring the bronze final for the purposes of this) and only putting players in the positions in which they actually played, I made ten changes:
15. Beauden Barrett (New Zealand), 14. Cheslin Kolbe (South Africa), 13. Manu Tuilagi (England), 12. Damian de Allende (South Africa), 11. Semi Radrada (Fiji), 10. George Ford (England), 9. Gareth Davies (Wales); 1. Tendai Mtawarira (South Africa), 2. Shota Horie (Japan), 3. Kyle Sinckler (England), 4. Maro Itoje (England), 5. Alun Wyn Jones (Wales), 6. Tom Curry (England), 7. Pieter-Steph du Toit (South Africa), 8. Duane Vermeulen (South Africa).
Putting that team together, it struck me how there weren’t many standouts at either halfback position. I’ve opted for Ford and Davies but I could have just as easily picked an all-South African pairing of Faf de Klerk and Handre Pollard or an all-French one of Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack.
On the wing, it is admittedly harsh to leave out the tournament’s three top tryscorers in Josh Adams, Makazole Mapimpi and Kotaro Matsushima but Kolbe and Radrada both looked like they could score any time they got the ball.
Matsushima in particular is one who I’ve seen in a lot of teams of the tournament this week but I don’t really get it, if I’m honest. Four of his five tries came against either Russia or Samoa and the one score he did get against a Tier 1 side (Scotland) was created entirely by Kenki Fukuoka. If I had to pick a Japanese winger, it would be Fukuoka.
In the pack, Du Toit gets the nod alongside Curry and Vermeulen, where I get to keep with the South African-style numbering but still get a balanced back row — though Ardie Savea and Justin Tipuric were unfortunate to miss out.
Again, I’ve seen some people throwing Michael Leitch into their team of the tournament but I thought he was the least impressive of Japan’s starting back row, with Kazuki Himeno and Lappies Labuschagné both impressing me more.
To be honest, I think the only big miss from my predicted team was picking Owen Farrell as a 10 and forcing James Ryan in for some Irish representation. Otherwise, I’ve seen every other player at least given an honourable mention on someone else’s list and put five of them in myself — with De Klerk, Jamie George and Joe Moody only narrowly missing out.
Ref Watch: Jérôme Garcès enjoying the final
It’s easy to forget but Saturday’s final was a big moment for the referees too. And Garcès seemed to make the most of it.
Some extra stuff
South Africa’s defence in the knockout stages was utterly incredible, holding Wales to the second fewest metres gained in Rugby World Cup history before holding England to the third fewest.
Alex Shaw of Rugby Pass looks at which players are in the final year of their contract at Saracens and could be let go in order to get the European champions back under the salary cap after they were fined £5.3m and handed a 35-point deduction for breaching the salary cap over the last three years.
In the i, former Harlequins coach John Kingston has a good piece on how frustrating it is for other teams to see Saracens succeed while breaking the rules of the salary cap and counters the ridiculous complaint that Saracens are being punished for being too good.
Just look how much this World Cup means to the people of South Africa. You can’t help but enjoy it.
Thanks for reading the final edition of my Rugby World Cup Newsletter. Enjoy the rest of the season!