The Other World Game

While I'm sure most New Zealanders knew exactly what was going on I had absolutely no idea. Sure, it was pretty, there were lots of nice special effects and everyone likes a haka. But when the kid with the giant football started to fly through the air I was reminded of Niki Webster at the Sydney Olympics and I almost threw up.

The confusion may have continued when France took to the field wearing white, the colour England usually wears. Then England ran out wearing black which is the colour New Zealand usually wears. To top it off Italy appeared wearing shiny glittery shirts that wouldn't look out of place late at night in a night club in Kings Cross. That may make one think the Italians are a little confused.

But once you get passed that initial confusion it's pretty clear that this tournament is off to a great start. While we were expecting to see the teams they call the "minnows" line up to for their traditional four yearly floggings most of them have put up a serious fight. There hasn't been an upset yet but we've come very close. We saw Romania almost knock off Scotland, while Japan gave France an almighty fright. And let's not forget Australia went into half time tied 6 all with Italy.

There very nearly was an upset when Wales overcame South Africa. Unfortunately they were robbed of victory by a very ordinary piece of refereeing, the reigning champs winning the game by a single point. While Wales could hardly be described as a minnow it certainly wasn't expected to come anywhere near South Africa.

The trend we are starting to see is a narrowing of the margins. In 1999 Fiji beat Namibia by 49 points, this year the margin was reduced to 24 points. It was a vastly different team to the one the Wallabies hammered 143 nil in 2003. Also in 2003 New Zealand downed Tonga by 84, this year it was 31. While these are still fairly big margins we are seeing the countries that usually struggle improve. The term "minnow" may not be necessary in another four years.

The refereeing has also been fairly good with the exception of the Wales goal debacle. The IRB has been working hard to allow the game to flow and it seems like that work is beginning to pay off. Since it made the very unfortunate decision to abandon the ELV's it's very nearly reached the goals that those law variations set out to achieve, that is to keep the games exciting. Or at least watchable.

All things considered the first round of the world cup has been very encouraging for the game of rugby. That's especially important in Australia where rugby is the fourth football code behind AFL, rugby league and soccer. Australia needs to do well in this tournament if the game is to give the other codes any competition at all. If we can see more of the rugby we saw from the Wallabies in the second half of Sunday's game then they are not only doing the right thing for their country, they are doing the right thing for their sport as well.