Congratulation France....

Having lived in France for a few years back in the late 80's and early 90's and seen the reawakening of Stade Toulousain as one of the main forces in France and eventually in Europe I just want to say the French team were a credit today to France and the Northern Hemisphere. To be completely written off beforehand and to almost beat the all blacks in Eden park in a World cup final was a tremendous effort.

Thierry Dusatoir, Nicholas Mas, William Servat, Immanol Harinordoquay, Morgan Parra, Aurelien Rougerie, Vincent Clerc, Dimitri Yachvilli to name a few were all outstanding today.

I believe the all blacks were worthy winners in the overall scheme of things. I do not want to say anything about the coaches or the referee in the final but this and the 2007 effort were born by Bernard Laportes (yes mad Bernie) attempt to get a disciplined approach by French teams. All I would like to say is that this French team can be very proud that despite the referee today they contested each breakdown legally and in a disciplined manner. They trusted their defense which was immense.

Thierry Dusatoir was a well deserved man of the match today and you could see by his demeanour in the post match interview that he knew who the better team on the day were....

Congratulations NZ, deserved winners throughout the tournament, and well done France for stepping up and making a challenge of it.

I was a bit surprised in post match interviews & statements how little the NZ camp recognised the French effort. I know the ABs were waiting to exhale on this one and their minds were probably overburdened with the nation's expectations, but I was a little disappointed by the level of credit they gave to their opposition for making it a tough battle. Something along the lines of 'hats off to the French, they really made us fight for it and were worthy opponents' just wasn't given in their acceptance of the accolades. I'm sure it was just an oversight in the moment, but I hope they give them their deserved dues in the coming days.

Maybe because they realised that the better team did not win on the day...they werent feeling so magnanimous....

I thought the french were magnificent. Worthy finalists considering how they got there and what we and most were saying beforehand.

Dussttoir was herculean and could well win irb player of the year in a few hours.

I actually dont give a flying f**k that france who were the villain of rugby planet one week ago are now the nice bunch who gave the almighty abs a gentle scare before bowing out. would have preferred them to be the bad guys who robbed the RWC from the nice kids in black and sent NZ into 4 years of depression. woudl have preferred them to go and punish the small border-line infrigments with their own feet (90's style) rather than waiting for the ref to act. this wasnt part of the script either.

Still this team made me very proud and feel sad for those players who showed a lot of heart and guts as most will not be around in 4 years time.

for a team that only had defense and the basics of rugby as weapon this was actually a good performance...nevertheless we were very close to be worldchamps (albeit undeservedly) and god knows how long it will take to have another decent shot as we were lucky to face only 6N teams before facing a very ordinary or nervous AB team in the final.
Am not specially angry at Joubert who did not make any major mistakes I think, he's just a human after all and home pressure must not be easy to cope with, and will always try to respect a rugby referee decisions as its a tough job...have been watching french team long enough to know that referee decisions do rarely go our way (bless wayne barnes for being exception that confirm the rule) and the feeling of being robbed is kind of part of the game for us...still this makes me remember 1995 when it was also at the wrong place and time and when higher forces seem to prevail.

so in the end NZ won and lived happily ever after...well done to them.

now back to NH rugby topics.

Perhaps you should be asking how a team that deserved to win the RWC on that performance.
Did`nt do it earlier if it was a horse race there would have been a stewards
enquiry.
Make no mistake France were getting there licks in too with punches,stamping,swinging arms and the rest.France were definitely up for
it.
BUT standing in the middle of the park only once looking to score a try,butchering all but one kick at goal it was a joke by both sides.
An brilliant match by both sides,loads of effort,lousy execution of the main thing scoring points.

well i will be the first to admit that i didnt want the french to win- but my alledgence switched during the game due to they play- well done france you played your part

Make no mistake, France dominated that game, but due to the referees' incompitance, NZ were able to do what they wanted without fear of reprisal.

Lying on the ball and the tackler, offside, holding on to the ball, high tackles, collapsing teh scrum - you name it they did it!