The allure of sport, of course, is the unfolding narrative, the sense of watching an extraordinary saga play out in real time before your very eyes.
While movies, plays and novels have heroes and villains established early, sport can create a hero in an instant, and have him turn villain just seconds later. The unpredictability! The suspense!
Lean forward, friends, and perch right on the edge of your seats, because something we never saw coming might be about to happen, we just don’t know what.
This match between the All Blacks and Los Pumas was not that.
It was more a quarter-final match played on the date of the semi-finals by error of seeding, transplanted here by cosmic mistake – just as last week’s Ireland v All Blacks one-point thriller, and the epic clash between the Springboks and France decided in the last second were semi-finals played early.
Going into this match we all expected the Pumas to be valiant, creative and daring, only to be crushed by a runaway All Blacks bulldozer.
Damian McKenzie and Aaron Smith celebrate a comprehensive New Zealand win in Paris.Credit: Getty
My rugby friends? Just that happened before our very eyes – everything we had predicted, and feared.
Yes, the Argentines scored a penalty early, to give them the lead for a few precious minutes, but it proved to be a small flag of blue and white bravely fluttering on the beach, just as the All Black tide began crashing on their shores.
For, yes, as wave after wave of men in black completely swamped them, los argentinos were extraordinary in their bravery, perpetually sacrificing their own bodies to bring them down. But nothing could stop the All Blacks bulldozer as they rumbled and grumbled in three tries in the first half to put the result well beyond doubt at half-time, holding a 20-6 lead.
Aaron Smith surges into the clear on his way to New Zealand’s fourth try.Credit: Getty
What could Pumas coach Micheal Cheika – who has commendably been learning Spanish – have said to his charges at half-time?
I’ll bet it was something like this:“No pares. Sigue abordando. Puede que no ganemos, pero mañana por la mañana nos recordarán.”
“Don’t stop. Keep tackling. We may not win, but they will remember us tomorrow morning.”
Los Pumas did exactly that and no matter how many black waves hit their shores in the second half, they never gave it anything but their all – despite the All Blacks running in another four or five tries, I lost count, as the crowd moved right to the back of their seats.
As the match neared its end, the All Blacks were likely practising moves for their final next week, against the Springboks – after the South Africans inevitably deliver England a thrashing like father used to make, on Saturday night (Sunday, 6am, AEDT) at this same venue.
At full-time it was a 44-6 victory to the New Zealanders.
Look, this World Cup has been wonderful to date, and the quality of rugby from start to finish has been exceptional. We’ve seen how the game played at its best before ravenous crowds is a joy to behold. As a mate over here broadcasting pointed out: “The fact that rugby fans around the globe are talking about and celebrating Portugal, Argentina, Japan, Wales, etc shows another unrivalled point of the game – it ain’t soccer, of course, but it has shown how at its best it can be so much more than our other domestic games.”
It’s just such a pity that on such a stage as this, the semi-finals of what has been a great Rugby World Cup has to have such mismatches. The quarter-finals were wonders to behold, and amounted to far more than the sum of their parts.
These two semis are unlikely to make a whole.
Watch all the action from Rugby World Cup 2023 on the Home of Rugby, Stan Sport. Every match streaming ad-free, live and in 4K UHD with replays, mini matches and highlights available on demand.
