France 7 vs. New Zealand 8 23rd October 2011

How I wish I’d been wrong! I said France can beat New Zealand but won’t (see previous) and that’s exactly how it looked at Eden Park as New Zealand stood firm, Trinh-Duc missed his kick at goal and Craig Joubert remained reluctant to penalise All-blacks at the breakdown.

Australia 6 v New Zealand 20 16th October 2011

Southern Hemisphere rugby once again less exciting than (England aside) Northern. New Zealand, my perhaps not very interesting prediction as eventual world cup winners, grind out a hard, frenetic, highly competitive but essentially attritional victory over Australia.

England 12 v France 19 8th October 2011

As I predicted at the start of the tournament, England didn’t make it past the quarter finals and as I wrote that I would be, I’m glad they’re out.

Ireland 10 v Wales 22 8th October 2011

I think it was after Ireland beat Australia, when I read Eddie Butler describe Ireland as playing with a ‘passionate fury or a furious passion’. This morning, our time, Wales beat them at their own game.

Wales (16) vs. South African (17), 11th Sept 2011

Gallant losers, once again. Probably a tag Wales won’t want despite the potential for puns in French language newspapers. An almost faultless performance from Le Pays de Galles – the right mix of adventurous and conservative. They were courageous and skillful – mixing up decent up-and-unders from James Hook, kicks to the corner from Rhys Priestland (aged 24, looks 14), bosh up the middle from Jamie Roberts, wings taking ball from Mike Phillips at scrum-half, forwards battering away. And yet, they lost! Why?

England v Argentina 10th Sept 2011

Predictably sluggish start from England. Up against a team representing a country where rugby still isn’t professional, who have played one test match in eleven months and who are missing at least one superstar player, England ground out a 13-9 win, having been behind until the 69th minute of the match.

New Zealand vs. Tonga 9th Sept

Tonga 10 v. New Zealand 41

I haven’t seen much of recent New Zealand rugby, as I only watch them when they come over here or during world cups, but I had a feeling before the tournament that they’d win it, just because their run of losing World Cups they look destined to win has got to end sometime. On the basis of this game … it’s hard to tell much!