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The All Blacks have lived up to pre-World Cup expectations with dominant displays in England, which clearly suggest they are the team to beat. Australia, South Africa and a resurgent Argentina are up to challenge that claim and wrest the initiative away from them.
In one of the most ferociously contested World Cups in history, the fancied southern hemisphere teams have survived to battle it out in the semi-finals.
They have left in their wake the disappointment and dejection of the top teams from the northern hemisphere amid controversy and debate about possible outcomes marred by bad officiating.
The referees copped plenty of flack in crucial games involving Scotland, Wales and Ireland that may well have made a difference to the semi-final line-up.
But the official status is that a southern Hemisphere team will come away with the spoils this year and the standout on form has been the scintillating All Blacks. Their expansive, explosive and creative game has the rest in awe, with opponents desperately trying to mastermind a way to stifle the rolling juggernaut.
Richie McCaw’s men have peaked at the right moment to deliver the All Blacks an important World Cup victory. Almost half of this great outfit are approaching retirement and dynamic legend Dan Carter in particular, who was an unfortunate casualty when they won it in 2011, will want to bow out on a high.
The All Blacks underlined their true intent in their last encounter against known nemesis France in the quarter-final, rising from a rusty start to rout the Frenchmen 62-13 while burying demons of the past.
Australia, who loom as the next biggest threat, will count their blessings that they were given a lifeline by South African referee Craig Joubert, whose atrocious decisions against Scotland handed them a semi-final berth.
Scotland were leading with two minutes on the clock when a contentious offside decision gave the Wallabies a penalty from 30 metres out. Bernard Foley calmly slotted between the posts to give them a nail biting one-point victory.
The rule decrees the decision was correct but logic appeared to suggest that the knock-on should have been the first choice as the offending player in an offside position was merely defending himself from the oncoming Australian defence. Sending off Sean Maitland for an innocuous offence was another shocking decision by Joubert which cost the Scottish.
It was a pulsating game of rugby which almost cost the Wallabies dearly for their sloppy play and inability to convert ideal situations into points.
The great escape will reignite the Wallabies into the outfit that recently claimed the Rugby Championship and earmarked them as the possible challenger to the All Blacks.
South Africa and surprise package Argentina will do what they can to break the predictable All Blacks-Wallabies clash in the final but it appears cut and dried that this will be the showdown for rugby’s ultimate prize.
As it stands, three of the semi-finalists have won the World Cup twice, the All Blacks, Australia and South Africa. So it will be interesting to see who will break the deadlock and claim bragging rights as the best World Cup team ever.
An overall assessment of this World Cup at the home of rugby union saw the emergence of several nations, most notably the only Asian qualifier Japan, who rocked the competition with three wins out of four games despite failing to make the quarter-finals. As we predicted in these columns in our previews, the gap between the best and the rest has closed markedly and this augurs well for World Cups to follow.
The Japanese, coached by former Wallabies mentor Eddie Jones, shocked the world and the competition when they began their campaign by staging a sensational upset over former World Cup champion South Africa. Their next major triumph was over Samoa and they will be a team to watch out for as the years roll on.
Fiji, Georgia, Canada, USA, Italy and Uruguay also stamped their mark on the competition as did Tonga in a welcome upsurge of world rugby giving their fancied opponents a torrid time before going down.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.