Winning Blossoms leave Cup on high

And it would be risky, too, for Ireland to take their opponents lightly.

Fullback Ayumu Goromaru, whose unique stance before firing his precision kicks captivated the attention of the global rugby community as well as the non-rugby playing Japanese public, expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to participate in the World Cup. We haven’t even had the injury problems that they’ve had. Compare us to Wales and Ireland’s situation now, as well as Scotland’s general lack of numbers, and it just beggars belief. Lancaster was forever hoping, not knowing, going to-and-fro between his options. Do you go for a southern hemisphere coach?

Does that mean that you see no way back for Lancaster? The way this team develops will be the quality of the players here.

“There’s no question that it’s the right part of the country to be celebrating rugby and that’s why we took England to Manchester in the first place”.

Should more have been made of the omissions of Danny Cipriani, Dylan Hartley and Manu Tuilagi.

“If young players aspire to be the next to wear the Cherry Blossom and understand what they need to do, then making the quarterfinal is a realistic task”. If they had played the rest of the tournament with that same intensity, they may still be involved.

‘I always thought Japanese rugby was underperforming. I did a newspaper column in May about this and yet it’s still all about this culture. They have been the ones who’ve kept things interesting in what otherwise may have turned into a fairly drab affair.

The perception that the number of injuries suffered at World Cups has greatly increased is incorrect, according to rugby’s governing body.

“We would all like it to be much closer to the tournament from a competition point of view, but there are a few realities of taking Rugby World Cup to a new market and we have to be sensible”.

The outlook for O’Connell, who is retiring at the end of the World Cup, looks particularly bleak, with coach Joe Schmidt admitting he might have played his last game for his country after being stretchered off. Just a shame their team chose to leave the party early. When I was a boy there was film called Rollerball and it was about doing real damage to each other. Winning is a habit.

Instead, nobody had a clue what England team was going to be picked, even seemingly in the team itself, and it made its mark in both attack and defence.

What money for an all Southern hemisphere semi final line up? Has England’s exit tainted it in any way? I’ve got no regrets.

“People dropped out of coming to the game and I’ve had to convince people to come with me!” New Zealand were also overwhelming favorites to claim the trophy in 2007 before being stunned by France in the last eight.

Maradona had proven a typically passionate observer at Leicester’s King Power Stadium as the Pumas moved to the brink of qualification for the quarter-finals.

“Looking at the quarter-final draw, you might see a odd final”.

Rugby is growing and hats off to everyone who has helped make it happen. There will be outstanding individual performances, heroes will be born and teams will make nations proud, but already heroes have emerged and fans in the most unlikeliest of places will be puffing out their chests.