by It is a relatively little known fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was a huge rugby fan. He traveled to France, South Africa and New Zealand to watch matches and, in 1924, he wrote in his autobiography that he considered rugby “the best team sport” because of the physical and mental demands on it. Even Holmes’ faithful companion, Watson, is credited with having played on the wing for England’s oldest club, Blackheath, in his day.
So what would the famous detective have deduced, almost exactly a century later, from studying the 2023 Rugby World Cup? It’s easy to imagine him exhaling a cloud of pipe smoke in his Baker Street lodgings and concluding that the competition was ultimately defined by what didn’t happen. Hosts France were not carried on their shoulders through the streets of Paris with the trophy, the Irish were unable to make their fans’ fondest dreams come true and, in the final, the All Black dog did not bark at night. In the end, they were all overtaken by a South African team that was a little stronger and prettier than the rest.
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Should everyone have seen it coming? Maybe. The bright-eyed Springboks were the defending champions and defeated New Zealand 35-7 in their final pre-tournament warm-up match at Twickenham. That same week, by chance, I was standing next to the same coffee machine as All Black head coach Ian Foster and asked him how his team was preparing for the ultimate test. Foster really felt his team was in a good place; I didn’t know the Boks were in an even better situation.
When people review the details of the knockout stage, the other general conclusion will be the absurdly thin margins between success and failure. No team will ever win another Rugby World Cup in the same extraordinary tightrope fashion with which the Boks won this one: three consecutive one-point victories in the quarters, semi-finals and final, all chiseled from tough adversity like the granite. This was less about individual achievements and more about a collective case of South Africa refusing to be defeated. Elementary, really.
The good
Each World Cup is remembered differently depending on people’s point of view. The last edition was the definitive example. Everyone in France could feel the air coming out of the tournament’s tricolor balloons as the defeated hosts fell to the ground at the final whistle in the quarterfinals. A similar story had played out the night before following Ireland’s crushing 24-28 loss to New Zealand. Try telling anyone in those two countries that he should give thanks indefinitely, as continues to happen throughout South Africa, for the generous gifts 2023 gave.
Still, there were certain unifying themes that refreshed even the most jaded palate. To be at the Stade de France as tens of thousands of Irish fans sang Dirty Old Town and Zombie after watching their team defeat the Boks in the group stage was to experience the special shared communion that rugby fans can still generate (when They’re not booing Eddie Jones or Owen Farrell on the big screen.) The same thing happened in the glorious final moments, when Portugal won in the last attempt against Fiji in Toulouse, which earned them The Wolves his first victory in the main draw of the World Cup. The World Cups come to life when people get out of their seats and Portugal achieved this almost every time they took the field.
In the end, however, one man – again – stood out. Not Eben Etzebeth, Pieter Steph du Toit, Handré Pollard, Ox Nché or any of the other fierce Bok match winners, but their captain, Siya Kolisi. The next time someone talks flippantly about leadership being less important in the coach-dominated, data-driven modern sporting environment, simply direct them to Kolisi’s press addresses throughout the competition. Sincerity, integrity, passion, humanity… the boy from the downtrodden township of Zwide in the Eastern Cape has matured into perhaps the most impressive figure in all of world sport. When the New Zealanders lament their 14-man team’s 12-11 defeat in the final and blame the referees for red-carding their captain, Sam Cane, they forget the remarkable links – partly spiritual, partly siblings-. that elevated South Africa above all others. It takes a unique person to lead a team to one World Cup triumph, let alone two. Rugby has never had a better ambassador.
The bad
The World Cups can play tricks on the imagination. Was it really just four months ago that Eddie Jones was still hailed as Australia’s trump card? It now appears considerably longer. Few have left a longer trail of coaching ruins in their wake over the past 12 months than Jones, now awaiting his next challenge in the form of a second spell as Japan head coach. England, after sacking Jones last December, could only hand the mother of hospital passes to Steve Borthwick, who had no choice but to put together the most basic game plans for a tournament that cried out for a little more sophistication in layers. The Wallabies? There have been toddler meals with a less messy ending than Australia’s 40-6 defeat to Wales in Lyon, after which Jones’ days in charge of his homeland were inevitably numbered.
And, as for Johan Deysel, what would have happened if France kingpin Antoine Dupont had not been punched in the face by Namibia’s upright captain in a group match that The Blues Were they already winning along the Champs Elysees? An untimely fracture, a gigantic hole in a nation’s self-confidence. Dupont returned, wearing a protective helmet, in time for the quarter-final match against South Africa, but he would never be the same D’Artagnan Musketeer again. In that split second (with France up 54-0 in a match they would eventually win 96-0), the tournament’s biggest asset was instantly replaced by daily medical bulletins and global frustration. If France could rewrite any moment of their World Cup – including Cheslin Kolbe’s crucial attack on Thomas Ramos’ conversion attempt – it would involve replacing Dupont at half-time in that game against Namibia before disaster struck.
The ugly one
Rugby’s rulers had the best of intentions when, on the eve of the World Cup, they confirmed the use of the new bunker review system to help on-field referees judge cases of dangerous or reckless play. Unfortunately, the results were often so superficial and questionable that uncertainty reigned. Tom Curry received a red card in the opening minutes of England’s first match for the sin of colliding with a falling Argentine opponent and the chances of a prolonged slow-motion investigation significantly impacting an important knockout match were always high. Indeed, this was fulfilled in the final. Cane’s dismissal was arguably for a less egregious infraction than the one his teammate Shannon Frizzell had already committed earlier in the game, but by the letter of the law he had to leave. It also didn’t help the sport that the momentous final decision to red card the All Blacks captain, after a lengthy bunker review process, was finally taken out of the hands of an excellent referee, Wayne Barnes. The idea was to help officials, not turn them into helpless hostages of fortune.
Worse still was the subsequent tide of anger on social media that flowed in the direction of Barnes and fellow English referee Tom Foley. Both announced their retirement from international football shortly after the tournament, sickened by the abuse directed at their families and themselves. A problem of society, in part, but also, increasingly, of rugby. Eddie Jones is among those who believe there is a direct link between long interruptions of the game to review video and the booing of individuals on the big screen by bored and distracted fans. The talented Barnes had handled the final with aplomb and yet here he was, still being ridiculed by the cowards and the nameless. The biggest rugby tournament in history had bright and happy moments, but there were also flashes of depressing darkness.
Learned lessons
Let’s start with the good news. The France-South Africa and Ireland-New Zealand quarterfinals were some of the best in rugby; tough, fast, skillful, ingenious and with an impressive staging. The only drawback was that two of the four best teams in the world were unable to participate in the last fortnight. Next time, the draw will be held closer to the event, reducing the chances that qualifying quirks will fundamentally shape the competition in the same way again. The effective duration of the tournament is also reduced from eight weeks to seven: the 2023 edition was so long that even those of us who barely made it past O level French almost mastered it by the end.
However, if World Rugby could wave a magic wand, it would be to expand the number of suitably competitive teams to match a scheduled expansion to 24 nations (from 20) next time. In addition to concussion-related lawsuits and off-field financial concerns, international football must still be wary of too many mismatches, a lack of danger and an uneven playing field tilted in favor of the established elite. Success, or not, in 2027 and 2031 will be most effectively measured by results when teams ranked 21st to 24th in the world rankings take on the big boys.
