Ireland and Wales, though they did not use them as excuses, were severely hampered by injuries when it came to the crunch, and Scotland – who played above themselves this tournament – were robbed of a famous victory over Australia by a disgraceful decision from referee Craig Joubert at the end of their quarter-final.
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Forty-eight matches, 271 tries, admirable ultimate champions and a host of brilliant memories from arguably the best Rugby World Cup ever.
All four semi-finalists – Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa – came from the Southern Hemisphere.
Stuart Lancaster’s side lost to Wales and Australia in the so-called “pool of death”, their defeat by the Welsh watched by 11.6 million viewers on ITV – the largest Rugby audience in the United Kingdom since the 2007 Final. This included 120,000 tickets that were purchased through the tournament’s official resale service, a safe and secure platform through which fans could sell their unwanted tickets to other fans at face value.
The Rugby Football Union will benefit to the tune of $NZ32 (£15million) from the surplus made by the Rugby World Cup, it has been announced.
Record attendances, compelling competition and a whopping £80 million (€112m) surplus are hard claims to argue with and it is a pleasure to report that personal experience actually confirms that such declarations are no overstatement.
The fearless Blossoms were also nominated for Team of the Year but there could be no arguments that New Zealand deserved the award given their performances at the World Cup.
From the bravura displayed by Japan to beat South Africa on the opening weekend to the All Blacks’ epic run to retaining the Webb Ellis Cup, this World Cup has had no equal and even Ireland, poor battered Ireland, played its part. However, they are one of the favourites, the current holders of the Rugby Championship and the only team to have beaten New Zealand this year. It was only time during the tournament they published such a review. The Japanese became the first team to exit the World Cup after winning three group games. Over 300,000 used the Blippar App to access unique content by scanning their ticket including match previews, view from your seat and interviews.
Tournament partner Land Rover has produced these two videos containing a few of the best bits of the biggest tournament the sport has ever seen.
Brown said: “From England 2015’s perspective this had been a huge success. And unfortunately, the Rugby Union at the moment is not set up to bring that talent through”.
Before that, he had a long list of coaching appointments, including stints coaching club rugby in Japan and guiding Australia to the 2003 Rugby World Cup final.
“The spectacular final was a fitting way to conclude the six-week tournament which has been enjoyed by millions both here in England and across the globe”.
World Rugby chairman Bernard Lapasset said the six-week tournament was the “best-attended, most-watched and most commercially-successful Rugby World Cup”.
The two countries with the biggest issues as far as their games’ structure goes are France and England. Whether it was directing fans from train stations or entertaining the crowds at fanzones and venues, their enthusiasm help deliver a true celebration of rugby. “But for Japanese rugby to keep developing, it needs to happen by planning now”.
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Indeed, the only side from north of the equator to topple a member of the big four during the tournament was Japan.
