25 May 2012

RWC Final: France 7 – All Blacks 8

RWC

RWC, New Zealand, 2011

Wasn’t a win you could wallow in
but it was a victory perchance –
a valedictory in simile sense for
coach Graham Henry; and while

we’ll gracefully be spared acerbic
& truncated humour in the next
RWC c/o the same garrulous old
guru – Graham, thanks anyway

be that as it may the game was
played with an intensity beyond
imagination for a result truer to
the dire nature of real contest

thanks to referee & easily man of
the match Craig Joubert, without
whom we would have languished
in doldrums of clueless despair

Les Bleus played in pure white for
the final – a wry metaphor to the
All Black strip and silver fern worn
in opposing them

but at games end one point only
separated victor and vanquished,
at 7 – 8 it was as close as it gets
to pair elation with raw anguish

yet it matters not which team was
judged best, deserved more, or
came under scrutiny if the game
earned its accolades fairly

but think too of ghastly injuries
incapacitating great and about to
be players whose gift to the game
is a warm promise waiting

there were many hearts broken;
legacies now stand testament to
scared names feted and we await
claims for the new honour roll

at RWC, England, 2015
© 24 October 2011, I. D. Carswell

So I waited, in all decency, until well after the event!

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