New Zealand underlined their global superiority by becoming the first nation to win back-to-back Rugby World Cup crowns, the perfect send-off into retirement for inspirational captain Richie McCaw.
The flanker, widely regarded as one of the all-time greats, has stepped out of the All Blacks limelight after a record 148 Tests, while teammates Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith headed to the French Top 14.
“That last game, to have that as the lasting memory of the last time on the pitch — pretty satisfying,” the 34-year-old — a three-time World Player of the Year — said of the 34-17 win over Australia in the World Cup final at Twickenham in London.
Photo: AP
His retirement came hot on the heels of news of the death of former All Black winger Jonah Lomu, who died unexpectedly at his Auckland home at the age of 40 from cardiac arrest related to the chronic kidney disease that cut short his playing career.
“He is an icon in rugby and I have to represent all the fans that Jonah had in the world,” World Rugby chairman Bernard Lapasset said. “This fantastic man delivered a very great message about rugby to the world... He terrified defenses and thrilled spectators with a brand of running rugby that had never been seen before.”
The World Cup dominated the year and if the composition of the final, which saw perennial superpowers New Zealand defeat Australia, was no surprise, the path to the Twickenham showpiece featured far more upsets than at the previous seven tournaments.
There had long been complaints that the pool phase was all too predictable, with the same usual suspects in the quarter-finals.
Yet on the first weekend of this tournament, Japan beat two-time world champions South Africa 34-32 — the biggest upset the World Cup has known, which bodes well for the hosts of the next tournament in 2019.
“It sets us up very well commercially for that [2019] World Cup and beyond and it is great for the growth of rugby because all that money will be invested in the game in Japan,” World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper said.
Japan also beat Samoa and the US, only to become the first side in World Cup history to win three pool matches, but not qualify for the knockout stages.
Tellingly, one of the coaching casualties was Stuart Lancaster, whose England side did not make it out of a tough pool that included the Wallabies, Wales and Fiji.
He has since been replaced by Eddie Jones, who was in charge of Japan.
A frenzied finale to the Six Nations saw Ireland defend their title on an unprecedented day of 27 tries in three games.
Ireland, England and Wales were pegged level atop the table and playing for points in a thrilling climax to a tournament that also brought out the worst in Italy and wooden spoon winners Scotland, and finally some French flair.
Australia won a truncated Rugby Championship ahead of the All Blacks — South Africa finishing last after a shock home defeat by ever-improving Argentina.
The Otago Highlanders signed off the final Super XV season with their first title after a 21-14 victory over the Wellington Hurricanes in an all-New Zealand final.
The competition evolves into Super 18 next year, with franchises from Argentina and Japan joining the fray alongside the re-entry of the Southern Kings from South Africa’s Eastern Cape.
Drew Mitchell’s brilliant late try ensured star-studded Toulon became the first club to win three straight European Rugby Champions Cup titles, as they beat French rivals Clermont 24-18 in a thrilling final at Twickenham in May.
The game is to turn a new page next year when Rugby Sevens is to be included at the Rio Olympics.
Fiji won this year’s Rugby Sevens World Series as the US enjoyed a breakthrough success by taking the London Sevens title — the first time they had come out on top in a Sevens Cup final.
It was Fiji’s second World Series title and first since 2006, making the Pacific islanders the first nation other than New Zealand to win the Sevens World Series since 2010.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier