Oh Wow

Not my headline. I’ve pinched it from David Flatman, whose ITV World Cup Rugby podcast is currently required listening. He and I are both referring to this weekend’s matches, four quarterfinals which supplied more tension and high quality entertainment in one weekend than I’ll ever see again.

I’m not a proper rugby fan. I don’t get cold, slog out in the depths of winter to support my team. I sit in the warm with a cup tea, and put the telly on, and this weekend I had a treat. With fifteen minutes to go, you couldn’t be sure how any of these games would end up. The losing sides averaged 23 points each, and that doesn’t happen very often.

There were little moments where fates were decided, where a different referee might have come to a different decision, and the game might have gone the other way. The incredible French kicker Ramos, for instance, lining up a distant conversion, lets his kick go - only for it to be charged down by Colbe, the South African winger with incredible speed. When did we last see a conversion charged down? Is it possible - and we do have the technology now, to check this out - that Colbe left a fraction early? Does it matter? Oh yes, it does. The conversion is two points, and South Africa end up winning by one. As the commentators like to say, fine margins.