Best Rugby World Cup sees 2019 kick off exciting new era
- Double success for South Africa, new heights for Wales, and ups and downs for the heavyweights as it gets tougher at the elite end
- Changing of the coaching guard sets up equally fascinating 2020
A year in which New Zealand’s invincibility cracked revealed unprecedented competition in the international game: having led the world rankings for a decade, they were succeeded by four rivals in a matter of weeks.
As meaningless a prize as the No 1 tag is, its rotation proved how fine the margins were becoming.
Several contenders outdid themselves after a foreign coach altered their mindset – signposted from the year’s first major test.
Tight at the top
When Wales kicked off the Six Nations by winning 24-19 in France, they recovered from 0-16 at half-time in the tournament’s record comeback. They were also being dared to fulfil coach Warren Gatland’s prophesy that if they prevailed, they would win the title.
On paper, there had been better Welsh teams, but none ranked the world’s best, as Wales were to be by summer. Kicking on from Paris, they again trailed at half-time before downing England, and claimed a grand slam by tonking Ireland, who had beaten the All Blacks the previous autumn.
Masters of grinding out wins under Joe Schmidt, the Irish retained enough momentum to later displace Wales as world leaders, but their rot had begun against England in round one, when they were dismantled more convincingly than 32-20 suggested.
England’s comeback would have to wait despite that win in Dublin and a 44-8 pasting of France. A reality check from Wales followed, along with a jaw-dropping collapse against Scotland, from showboating at 31-0 up to needing a last-minute try to draw 38-all. It spurred coach Eddie Jones into a rethink in which he dispensed with several mainstays for an autumn surge that sent England briefly atop the rankings, to be usurped by the Springboks.
Showpiece proves best yet
Principally, 2019 was memorable for the ninth World Cup. The first held in Asia, it was widely rated the best so far. Quarter-finalists tend to be four or five of the old Five Nations, plus three or four of the Rugby Championship quartet, but hosts Japan became the first disrupters since Fiji in 2007.
The Fijians were sublime at times, even if they and a regressing Tonga and Samoa again showed they need greater support from the blazers. A bureaucratic lead was shown with a clampdown on dangerous play at a time when concussion horror stories from ex-players were coming thick and fast.
Whether the same could be said of the contingency plans when Typhoon Hagibis hit is debatable, although Japan put to bed most of the sporting misgivings over cancelled matches with a pulsating victory over Scotland. In doing so they scored some of the tries of the year, notably their offload-tastic second by Keita Inagaki; competing claims included Wallaby Marika Koroibete’s lungbuster against England, and TJ Perenara’s corner-flag acrobatics for New Zealand against Namibia.
Perenara and Co were denied a shot at a third straight title by England’s best display of the year – arguably ever. A 19-7 semi-final success made household names of Tom Curry, Sam Underhill and Kyle Sinckler, yet another reality check was coming. South Africa, who squeezed past Wales to reach the final, had the best set-piece, the best defence and stars of the calibre of fly half Handre Pollard and wing Cheslin Kolbe.
And they shone when it mattered most, dominating England to prevail 32-12.
New bosses, new brooms
Japan was Steve Hansen’s last hurrah with New Zealand, and he had company as six of the world’s top seven changed coach.
Ian Foster, Hansen’s assistant, succeeded him, while their countryman Wayne Pivac will build on Gatland’s Wales legacy, probably in more expansive style. Another New Zealander, Dave Rennie, faces a Wallabies rebuild but can inspire the green-and-gold up a peg or few in the crowded new world order.
The same is surely true for Fabien Galthie after France’s decade of underachievement, and Andy Farrell, stepping up from Schmidt’s defence guru to lead an Ireland due some fresh ideas. Jacques Nienaber is poised to make the same move to follow Rassie Erasmus for South Africa, who’ll aim to stay exactly where they are.
The All Blacks may have something to say about that in June when they return against Farrell’s Ireland – expect a ferocious response.
Empires fall
The Webb Ellis Cup was not the first trophy the Springboks ripped from New Zealand’s grasp this year: the Rugby Championship had been in their care for seven years out of eight before they were relieved of it in August.
Traditional club giants were adjusting to harsh realities. In December, Stade Francais sat bottom of France’s Top 14, while Toulon were grubbing around in the second-tier Challenge Cup alongside Stade, Leicester and Wasps – all multiple European Cup winners.
Reigning continental champs Saracens ended the year struggling in their pool and bottom of the English Premiership after being docked 35 points for salary cap breaches. Leicester and Wasps joined them at the wrong end as Bristol and Worcester became unlikely candidates for the play-offs.
Challenges to the status quo came on all fronts. Italy, with no wins in 22 matches, make little case for staying in the Six Nations ahead of, say, Georgia, who did their cause no harm at the World Cup. Spain, Romania and Russia are among others who would benefit from a second division.
Hong Kong are next cab off the rank in Asia, while the United States almost won the World Sevens Series – arguably overdue, given the talent vying for NFL contracts, and something for the game’s rulers to ponder as they look at replicating Japan 2019 on other continents.
The minnows are nearing a tipping point just as the top bracket swells. If the image of Siya Kolisi, the Springboks’ first black captain, lifting the World Cup was a defining one for his country, it served similarly for the rugby year, perhaps the next four-year cycle. The landscape is visibly shifting.
