Good Day
For a bit of number crunching as organisers expressed their delight at having sold out Twickenham for a final played between two teams from the other side of the planet and that it had been watched by 120 million television viewers across the globe.
Total attendances across the event were just under 2.5 million, an average of more than 51,500 per match, with 98 per cent of the tickets having been sold.
Yet Bernard Lapasset, the chairman of World Rugby whose native France had staged the previous most commercially successful tournament, was right in saying that those figures only tell part of the story.
"Rugby World Cup 2015 will be remembered as the biggest Tournament to date, but I also believe that it will be remembered as the best. England 2015 has been the most competitive, best-attended, most-watched, most socially-engaged, most commercially-successful Rugby World Cup,” he said.
“But this special Rugby World Cup has been about much more than numbers, it has been about the amazing atmosphere in full and vibrant stadia, the excitement around the host nation and in Cardiff, the unforgettable moments played out by the world's best players and the friendships that have been created along the way – the very best of our sport has been on display.”
It is both the competitiveness and the calibre of the matches that will live long in the memory, from Japan’s stunning of the Springboks, to the hosts’ ejection from the tournament as a ‘Pool of Death’ truly lived up to its billing, to the All Black destruction of France and the Scottish and Welsh heartbreak at that same quarter-final stage, to those intense all-Southern Hemisphere semi-finals and then a final that had everything we could possibly have hoped for in terms of quality, competitiveness, drama and romance.
The courage of Wales, in their comeback victory over England when ravaged by injuries and 10 points down to the hosts, of Ireland, when similarly wounded in their pool decider against France, of Georgia’s second-stringers when rallying behind inspirational skipper Mamuka Gorgodze against the All Blacks, of Australia in their rearguard actions against Wales and Argentina will live long in the memory, as will the spirit and verve with which the emerging nations performed.
Bad Day
For those of us who have loved every minute of this eighth World Cup tournament. This sport may never reach these heights again but in keeping with the post-match sentiments expressed by the peerless Richie McCaw, any sense of anti-climax should be kept at bay by the warmth of the glow of having partaken in a six week long party that has, with only rare and brief lapses, shown sport at its competitive best.
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