Rugby World Cup

Rugby World Cup.

WOW, what an amazing Rugby World Cup. The major teams got squeezed by the lower ranked teams and some got a real fright! Ireland beat Australia, and Tonga beat France. Sensational rugby. Auckland turned on great weather for the opening weekend and about 200,000 people turned out to celebrate the start of the Cup in downtown Auckland! Unbelievable! There are flags supporting every country all over the place. A great atmosphere with visitors being warmly welcomed and rugby camaraderie alive and well. The "minow" teams gave their all and sometimes came close to upsetting some of the major teams! 12 teams dropped out of the cup after the pools stage.

The sudden death matches began with the Quarter finals on 8 October. South Africa, England, Argentina and Ireland were knocked out leaving Wales to play France and New Zealand to play Australia in the semi finals on 15th and 16th October. After 2 great clashes, New Zealand and France emerged as the finalists to play on 23 October.

Then what a cliffhanger of a final with a win eventually to New Zealand over France 8-7. 4 million kiwis almost had heart failures at the same time!

Congratulations to the All Blacks for hanging on and their great performances through the cup. And also to the French for playing out of their skins and making the final as exciting as it could possible be.

The next World Cup will be in England in 2015 and then Japan in 2019. The 2011 World Cup was a spectacular success! Lets hope they are too.