The All Blacks have been out at Saint-Cloud this week, staying in a country club by a racecourse in the western suburbs of Paris. The bright lights feel a long way off out there, even the searchlight on top of the Eiffel Tower doesn’t stretch that far. Which has suited the team just fine. They have moved quietly through this tournament, putting one win in front of the other after they were beaten by France in the opening game way back in early September. Namibia, Italy, Uruguay, Ireland, Argentina. Now, as Saturday’s World Cup final nears, the party is winding down, the hosts are in bed, the other guests have already left, and the last two left downstairs have had very different evenings.
The South Africans have been the life and soul, centre of everyone’s attention ever since quarter-final week. They’ve staggered through two of the greatest matches in the history of the tournament, beating France by one point, then England by another, they’ve weathered controversies about their use of the head injury assessment system, accusations that their hooker racially abused one of the England team, and made headlines again this week with their decision to drop both their starting half-backs and pick seven forwards among their eight replacements. The All Blacks, meanwhile, have been watching on from the corner.
