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Sorry, but I am underwhelmed by the world cup.
It was sponsored by the SH unions to be a great carnival of rugby, a marvellous festival celebrating the game they play in heaven. But we created a monster. It is now an ugly, bloated monstrosity that consumes everything in its path. It has become the be-all and end-all of rugby. Test series have become meaningless, international tours irrelevant -- coaches use every rugby season as a preparation exercise for the next world cup.
Then, once every four years, the top five nations stage three one-off knockout matches, one side scrapes through the final on refereeing vagaries or a wobbly dropped goal, and they get to be "world champion" for four years.
There's not a grain of sense to it.
All Black legend Grant Fox was in the press last year calling for the world cup to be relegated to its proper status and traditional tours to be given their due. Knuckles was in the press last week saying the world cup could look after itself, the most important text the Wallabies will ever play in their next game.
These people are speaking plain good sense.
Worry about the world cup a couple of weeks before it starts, enjoy it for the colour and the atmosphere, award the winner their due accolades as champions of the festival, and get back to playing proper test rugby for the following four years.