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He has since been replaced by Eddie Jones, who was in charge of Japan.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.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
RSS