Congratulations to the South African national Rugby team (the Springboks) on capturing the 2007 Rugby World Cup. A well deserved triumph.
Watching the game, it was difficult to say that England put up a good match, but that doesn't take anything away from the Boks. They played well and did what it took to win.
I am going to go out on a limb here and predict a New Zealand win in 2011. No team can perform so consistently bad in one tournament. We are due!
This is a graph of the current points spread in the Rugby World Cup - being held in France. This is actually points differential - points scored minus those conceded.
It's sort of ridiculous that the top 20 teams in the world can be separated be such large differentials, and that that there are countries in the World competition that don't really have serious domestic leagues (or any leagues at all).
And for those of you who don't know much about rugby, getting outscored by 100 points is a very big deal! You kinda suck if that happens.
I wonder how many years this will go on before the World Rugby Commission realizes that they might have to design a new format? I'd rather see the top 10 teams in the world play a set of series against each other that decide the semi finalists than see the top teams walk all over weaker countries in a one-sided affair.
