There are those who will swear that the World Cup only truly starts now that the knockout stages are set and the big boys get ready to rumble.
What is undeniable, however, is that the most wonderful romance and colour in this tournament have departed along with some of the teams, fans and venues that graced Rugby World Cup 2015 so splendidly this past five weeks.
So, from Georgia to Japan, and from Sandy Park to St James’ Park, let’s pay our farewell tribute to those at England 2015 who may have gone but who are most certainly not forgotten.
THE BLOOMING BLOSSOMS
Japan illuminated the tournament in a manner which enabled more than their own nation to fall in love with them. By playing with such verve, heart and technical skill, who could resist adopting the Brave Blossoms as their second team? Eddie Butler, the former Welsh international, had alerted us before the tournament that Eddie Jones’s players might just be pound for pound the best in the world. Suddenly, we could catch his drift.
THE TRY HEARD ROUND THE WORLD
The moment when Karne Hesketh scooted over in the 84th minute to earn Japan their unreal 34-32 triumph over the mighty Springboks felt like a watershed moment in rugby, a sporting earthquake to rank up there with England 0 USA 1 at the 1950 football World Cup, Buster Douglas knocking out the supposedly unbeatable Mike Tyson, and a bunch of US college kids beating the 1980 Soviet ice hockey machine in the ‘Miracle on Ice’. Yet the ‘Miracle in Brighton’ was perpetrated only through breathtaking daring. A penalty goal would have earned Japan a draw but they wanted and deserved more. It almost felt as if that kick to the corner changed rugby thinking for ever.
WHO, ME?
It was one of the most delightful sights of the pool stages as big Mamuka Gorgodze – “Gulliver” to all Georgians or “Gorgodzilla” to his French admirers at Toulon – sat on the bench at the Millennium Stadium, looking simultaneously coy but clearly delighted when his name was announced as the man of the match in Georgia’s courageous defeat by the All Blacks. Not that this humble warrior had anything to be embarrassed about. The number eight’s inspirational leadership reflected his team’s passionate, thumping impression at RWC 2015, headed by their tremendous opening win over Tonga.
HARIBOS, SWEET SONGS AND THE FABULOUS FIJIANS
They came, they saw and if they didn’t quite conquer in the group of you know what, they still left English shores as the best Fijian teams always tend to, having wowed, thrilled and charmed the crowds. If it wasn’t their singing, which enchanted tourists at their Hampton Court welcome ceremony, or their hospitality to hard-working stadium staff, offering them handfuls of Haribo sweets from their team room, they were just wooing everyone with breathtaking rugby. That wonderfully unstructured 85-metre try against Wales, which passed through five pairs of hands before Niki Goneva ploughed over … has there been a better one in the tournament?
ROMANCE ROMANIAN STYLE
Romania could not quite offer us a win over France, Ireland or Italy. Instead, they offered something far more romantic, when after their defeat by the Irish at Wembley, their scrum-half Florin Surugiu (pictured), in front of all his teammates, went down on bended knee to ask his girlfriend to marry him. She said yes, so it was perhaps just as well Florin had not listened to coach, Lynn Howells. “I tried to advise him not to, but there you go,” Howells shrugged. “It’s too romantic for me.” Ah, spoken like a good Welshman.
NAMIBIA’S PROP IDOL
Namibia could not quite earn that first win, losing by a single point to Georgia, but the one-time 142-point whipping boys acquitted themselves proudly here. In their last match, at the end of a beating by Argentina, they gave their retiring stalwart prop forward Johnny Redelinghuys the chance to take the final conversion of his career. The cheery steel construction firm owner made a wonderfully comical attempt, impersonating Jonny Wilkinson’s preparations before missing by a mile and then declaring: “It was my first conversion and, may I say as well, the closest one ever.”
AFTER JPR, LOOK OUT FOR DTH
Canada may have just missed out on an elusive win but they had one of the most elusive talents on view in the form of South African-born wing Daniel Tailliferrer Hauman van der Merwe. “DTH”, as he is universally known, made more metres, 389, than any player in the pool stages as he became the first player from any tier two team to score a try in four successive games. The new Scarlets’ capture this season could prove the best set of initials to grace Welsh rugby since the Williamses, JPR and JJ, strutted their stuff.
MAN OF THE HOUR
If you had been asked before the tournament to name one player who would have the greatest impact on this World Cup, how many would have plumped for Michael Leitch, a New Zealand-born flanker with a Fijian background who threw his lot in with Japan after moving there as a teenager. Not only, according to his coach Eddie Jones, was he the best number six in the tournament but he will always go down as the inspirational leader who made the call against South Africa. “We were either going to win or go down fighting. I decided that we wanted to win rather than draw,” Leitch recalled. The rest was just historic.
AND FINALLY, A TRY
Uruguay, packed full of amateurs, were the last team at RWC 2015 to score a try and as soon as they managed one against Fiji, from Carlos Arboleya, along came a second from Agustin Ormaechea, whose father Diego scored at RWC 1999. Unfortunately, junior then blotted his copybook with a red card for swapping punches, to date the only one of the tournament. Agustin did not know whether to laugh or cry as his teammates went down 47-15.
FROM MARADONA TO MALTESERS
We will miss the smashing venues which added so much to the colour of the event. At Exeter’s Sandy Park for the Georgia-Namibia showdown, as the Guardian’s Rob Kitson pointed out splendidly, you could find “Prince Harry, Miss Namibia, men with big furry white Maltesers on their heads and Chiefs fans doing the Tomahawk Chop”. Meanwhile, at Leicester, who could ever believe we would see Maradona waving the hand of God to salute the boot of another pretty useful number 10, Nicolas Sanchez? Grand arenas, great memories…
