G GROWDEN in Montepellier - SMH | Wednesday, 26 September 2007
At the halfway mark of the World Cup, Greg Growden looks at the good, the bad and the ugly parts of the tournament so far.
THE GOOD
Southern Dominance: Since the 2003 World Cup final, Wallabies players have often talked about their rage at the way England handled their triumph. Clive Woodward's men were far from gracious in victory, instead using the moment to shove the finger up at everyone else. That hasn't been forgotten, which is why so many Wallabies, desperate for revenge, hope England qualify for their quarter-final on October 6. At the time, the English media talked of the demise of southern hemisphere football. But the south has rallied, and is now dominating the tournament because its teams can mix brute strength up front with flair out wide, to the extent that the four semi-finalists could easily be from one side of the equator. New Zealand-Australia in one semi-final and South Africa-Argentina in the other is highly likely. Suddenly, the northern experts have become very, very quiet.
The plankton fight back: We've heard the usual moans about too many teams in the World Cup, but there have been enough encouraging performances from the lesser countries for the IRB to reconsider their proposal to cut back the number of sides from 20 to 16 for the 2011 World Cup. Some of the highlights have involved the lesser lights - Georgia coming close to defeating Ireland, Portugal scoring a try against New Zealand and Tonga pushing the Springboks right until the final bell. These teams have provided colour and vibrancy and should be retained.
The location: France has taken to the World Cup, and, not surprisingly, a country which revels in its sense of style has allowed group matches to turn into carnivals. Spectators are talking about matches not as a contest, but as an occasion. Among the crowd are brass bands and dancers, and the spectators are encouraged to enjoy themselves, with loudspeakers blasting out rock 'n' roll music during any lull in proceedings. Sporting organisers in Australia take note - spectators should not be treated like cattle. Even some hours after games, spectators are still hovering around the stadia, drinking at the makeshift bars and relishing being in a country which knows how to enjoy itself. It all adds to the World Cup experience.
The standard of football: As with every World Cup, there has been the occasional blowout. But there have been enough moments of extravagance to indicate that international rugby remains relatively healthy.
THE BAD
Refereeing: World Cup officials have again failed to realise that the crowd does not attend games to watch them. The flow of too many matches has been affected by the pedantic attitude of referees, who stick to the letter of the law in the hope of impressing some assessor up in the stand. They should be encouraging free play, but instead relentlessly apply the brakes. Several of the lesser teams have every right to believe they have been dudded, with numerous dubious decisions going against them. Hopefully they will pick their act up by finals time.
Security madness: If you like being searched umpteen times a day, then covering the World Cup is for you. The organisers have gone security mad. It went crazy in Montpellier when, the day before the Fiji game, the Australian media attending the captain's run were even searched on the way out. Why? We were told that Australians naturally look suspicious, and they wanted to make certain we hadn't stolen anything from the media centre. Obviously they have been briefed about our history as a penal colony. Bureaucracy is another irritant. You spend half your day going here, there and everywhere, getting a ticket for the game, a different one to attend the press conference, another to meet the players … on and on.
Games in Wales and Scotland: Political horse-trading has cast a shadow on this World Cup. Hopefully, after this, the IRB will rule that the tournament should only be staged in one country. Three horrendous days in Cardiff reminded us all how lucky we were to be spending the other six weeks of the tournament in a country with a sense of style. And with it comes the biggest question of all: why do you have to pay $13 to cross the Severn Bridge into Wales, but nothing on the way out? We would gladly have paid 10 times that just to get out of there as fast we could.
THE UGLY
Sebastien Chabal: No wonder the Caveman is a cult hero in France. He even makes the press corps look attractive.
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