THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW
THE first World Cup dinner after a South Africa-New Zealand final since 1995 apparently ended without a single All Black wanting to knock the block off the Springbok-in-Chief.
That the last supper of RWC2023 passed off without a repeat of the argy-bargy at the first one almost 30 years earlier may have had something to do with the fact that Dr Louis Luyt (pronounced late) passed away 10 years ago.
None of the bigwigs invited to join the lesser wigs for Sunday night's bash at the Palais Garnier, the 19th century opera house built as commanded by Emperor Napoleon III, gave the runners-up cause to walk out before the main course as New Zealand had done en masse.
Had Louis not been the late Dr Luyt, he would have been sorely tempted to unleash a herd of elephants through the niceties of the evening. Those of us who knew the old tyrant suspected that he wouldn't have been able to help himself from sounding off.
His victory speech a few hours after President Mandela's touchline jig at Ellis Park might have gone down a storm a quarter of a century later during Trump's desecration of the White House. That night, at a wine estate not far from Johannesburg, Luyt's ultra-triumphalism made a sneering reference to the first two World Cups held while apartheid-South Africa watched from afar.
New Zealand won the first in 1987, beating France in Auckland, Australia the second four years later against England at Twickenham. Luyt belittled each achievement, claiming that the Springboks would have won both tournaments and that a World Cup without South Africa wasn't a World Cup.
“We boasted in '87 that the real World Cup was not won by New Zealand, because we were not there,'' Luyt, below, told a multitude of 1,000 guests. “Then again in '91, we boasted again. We were not there. Now in '95 we proved that if we were there, we would have won.''
Mike Brewer, the New Zealand back row forward who went on to coach Sale, confronted Luyt at the top table before making his exit. An angry exchange followed with the President, an imposing figure physically in strictly unapologetic mood, boxing his corner, figuratively speaking.
Not for nothing did Louis make his fortune out of fertiliser. Had the old heavyweight been top-table in Paris last weekend, he would have updated the fake news angle, extrapolating a record fourth Springbok World Cup into a sixth, thereby reducing New Zealand's three victories to two and Australia's two to one.
His acolytes would have expected nothing less.
Such revisionism does not alter a few historical facts which do nothing to support World Rugby's fanciful claim to presiding over a global sport. When the next tournament comes round in 2027, those facts will apply then as now:
In 40 years only four countries have won the World Cup: South Africa (4 times), New Zealand (thrice), Australia (twice), England (once).
In 40 years only one country other than the aforementioned quartet have reached the final: France, on three occasions.
In 40 years, only three more countries have gone as far as the semi-finals: Wales, Argentina (three times each), Scotland (once).
Over the same period the FIFA World Cup has been won by six countries: Argentina, Brazil, Germany, France (twice each), Italy, Spain (once each). Those reaching the final or semi-finals number almost twice as many: Belgium, England, Sweden, Bulgaria, Croatia, Holland, Turkey, South Korea, Morocco, Portugal, Uruguay.
The thrilling impression made on rugby's 50-day extravaganza by the Portuguese and Uruguayans provided inspiring proof of their readiness to cut rugby's global deficit. Each country had done enough to be put on a fast track towards a higher level.
Instead they find themselves shunted into a siding with no immediate prospect of letting off steam. Both will compete in the second tier of the nascent Nations League but without the remotest access to the Premier League equivalent for six long years, at the earliest.
Promotion to the elite dozen and relegation from it will not happen before 2030 which leaves two of the more entertaining qualifiers of recent weeks without any realistic hope of a one-off friendly against any of the top 10 between now and the next World Cup, in Australia in 2027.
By then the number of finalists will have increased from 20 to 24. Far from stimulating competition on a more universal scale, such expansion will probably serve only to increase the number of mismatches, that at a time when recent events strengthened the case for reducing the finalists to 16 and running a concurrent tournament for the next best 16.
Take Namibia as an example. Nobody dares question their bravery but, true to form, they lost all four pool matches in France against the hosts, New Zealand, Italy and Uruguay by a landslide, conceding 12 tries for every one they scored, losing by an average of 64-9.
Yet despite playing almost 30 pool matches at umpteen World Cups and losing the lot, the majority by cricket scores, they rarely fail to qualify. Their domination of the African Gold Cup is such that they have won the biennial event six times in a row. In the most recent final, last year, they thrashed Kenya 36-0.
Another qualifier from Africa, be it Kenya, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Morocco or Ivory Coast, would be hard pushed to do as well as Namibia and they've still to break a duck stretching back over the best part of 30 years.
More qualifiers ought to ensure America a place on the starting grid in Australia before Uncle Sam hosts the biggest show on the rugby planet in 2031. They've been talking about the US as the old game's new El Dorado for the last 25 years, long enough for the notion to be dismissed as wishful thinking.
Now that America has the chance to show they mean business, they had better get a move on. Attendances for last season's Major League Rugby, a tournament consisting of 12 teams in the US and one in Canada, averaged 2,600, an increase of 18 per cent on the previous season.
The sixth MLR season ended with the rarity of a five-figure crowd, the New England Free Jacks beating San Diego Legion (and their 41-year-old former All Black Ma'a Nonu) 25-24 in front of 10,103 fans at theSeat-Geek soccer stadium near Chicago. Suffice to say, there is room for improvement. Had Dr Luyt still been around, he would have raised a more relevant issue: ‘What's in it for Die Bokke….?'
