Monday 24 October 2011

Salute the French

 Almost . . .

The old rugby adage, "never underestimate the French" has been proven true again.  Those who were nervous and cautious were vindicated.  Those who thought the All Blacks would win by thirty points had their "on-paper" calculations exposed as artificial. 

What an amazing game the French played.  And amidst the perpetual debate about the relative merits of northern and southern hemisphere rugby there are few games that kept us on the edge of our seats right to the last second as this final did.  What a torrid game. 

It also shows how difficult it is to win the Cup away from home.  Congratulations to the AB's.  They will go down in history as one of the great teams developed in turn by a great management team .  Its great to see personal egos submerged beneath a common goal, yet in such a way that each individual played his heart out.  It was also great to see the mix of old and new in the team--and it is pretty evident that the lack of experience of the younger players would have had them crumble last night were it not for the steely resolve of the older heads. 

For us, one of the best moments was the appearance of Donald at first five.  It represented a resurrection motif--and how we love that theme and motif, all us Christians! 

Now, back to the real world!

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