Rugby World Cup

Maytrees min having asked me to watch the rugby world cup final on her wide screen TV from 9 am, at her flat, I decided to take the forty minutes or so walk to her home, which is near to the old Wimbledon Football Club ground. Mrs maytrees is not a rugby fan so did not attend with us.

The weather though was not ideal for an early morning stroll. There were huge gusts of wind and heavy rain for  while, making the use of an umbrella impossible. 

Youngest daughter's flat is beautifully clean neat and tidy and she provided a decent towel for me to sit on whilst the  rain  was dripping dry, during the early part of the match.

Our breakfast of decent coffee and croissants  was ideal. The match despite the score which was 12 - 32, was exciting and although South Africa won, not only were they the best team, their win surely  is good for the wider South African community?

Nelson Mandela I think it was, changed the sport from being an almost exclusively white man's sport for what used to be called the upper classes, to a sport for all white and black South Africans without regard to class. Furthermore the South African rugby team captain,  Siya  Kolisa, was for the first time in the sport's history in that country, a black South African.

The English team played well but in my view nowhere near as well as they had played in their semi final a week ago, against the then champions New Zealand, when England won  19 - 7, against the odds.

The Japanese appear to have been terrific hosts and despite the typhoon during the earlier part of the tournament. The popularity of the  sport in Japan has surely been invigorated by that country's work behind the scenes, as well as  the Japanese team in the rugby itself.