It isn't always about losing, it is about how you lose.

The world cup has come and gone and New Zealand has at last won the William Webb Ellis tournament for the second time.

For the rest of the countries' fans there must have been a lot of introspection, analysis, heartache and perhaps for a few a little bit of pride. For me the World Cup was at first a great worry, PDV has not convinced anyone that he could bring anything to the table for this world cup.

Then when Rassie Erasmus joined the Bok sqaud there was a glimmer of hope that we might surprise a few teams quickly dashed by a below par performance against Wales. In my opinion was it not for some of the young guns in Frans Steyn and Francois Hougaard, we would have lost the test. some believed and still do that we were lucky to win that test. well you make your own luck and in this case Frans Steyn and Francois Hougaard made our luck for us.

After the dissappointment against Wales we built some much needed cohesion during the two matches against Fiji and Namibia, only to have the rug pulled from underneath our back sides against Samoa.

The match I looked forward to most was a game of niggles, attempts to rattle the boks and a lot of off the ball incidents turned this into a match where the Boks were more concerned about getting through the match injury free than anything else.

Sadly that was not to be as our most influential player in the back line Frans Steyn was sent home and out of the world cup.

The biggest dissappointment was the loss to Australia and without going into further detail about all the things that went wrong on the day, needless to say still bugs the living poopoo out of me.

Getting to my real point.

I don't mind if we lose a match when we played great rugby, had the intensity and hunger to win. when my team makes the right decisions on the field and plays exciting intense rugby and the opponent was simply better on the day. There is no shame in losing against a brilliant team on the day.

What I do mind in fact despise is when we lose becuase we played poor rugby, when you don't win your line outs, when you struggle in the scrums, when you don't show intensity at the breakdowns and when, well the external factors influence the game.

The same applies when we win a match becuase we were slightly lucky, or when a decision went our way that shouldn't have, I feel guilty about that, I am sure others might also feel like that.

Becuase rugby is so close to our hearts and it is difficult to contain our emotions, it is sometimes hard to remain calm. but at the end of the day I just want my team to play beautiful intense test rugby.

How about you?

Agree mate. France were whingeing about how lucky we were in the final, but without the world's best 10 and our fourth choice, Weepu pulling a groin in the warmup etc, I'd say we didn't have it all our own way and we were clearly the best side in the first half. I hate the guys that were slagging off the final as a travesty of justice when we were told to suck it up by the same idiots four years ago. I think about the final now and I'm not really elated by it in hindsight-I think all that negative publicity affected me and that cheeses me off. Especially as in 07 and 95 factors that we couldn't control really hurt us as crucial moments.

I want us to play beautiful intense rugby too mate, though had we played beautifully in the final we would have had a one sided romp which people would have whinged about anyway. However it takes variables like the refereeing out of the game. Bet you're disappointed that SA didn't play well enough to take Lawrence out of it, as were we in 07.

I hope that you feel some justice in the team you feel you lost to unfairly went out in the next stage.

It's staggering that the best team in the tournament won but the refereeing in so many matches was a lottery and it was almost like the most roundabout way a team has won a WC.

Take it out on everyone next year mate. That's what we usually do.

They say the opposite is true. It´s not about how you win but whether you win or not. I too felt an anti-climax after the game but that has certainly passed now. We are world champs again and I waited 24 years for that to happen. I´m not going to let someone with a grudge begrudge me of that feeling of relief and elation.

We Kiwis know only too well about losing in World Cups. In a way, like you say, it´s easier to take a victory when the side did better than you. For that reason, even though I was living in France in 99, I didn´t mind so much that defeat as that little magician Dominici was incredible and you can´t really begrudge a team their victory when they come back from 24 -10 to spank you. But 2007 was a bitter pill to swallow. I can appreciate the frustration of the French this year but really that´s the limit of my sympathy. 95 was another tough pill to swallow not so much with the valiant way the SAs played but the thought that if so many AB players weren´t throwing their rings out it might well have been different. Though I can certainly appreciate the Bok view that they won and they won splendidly. But that 95 team was special and sometimes sadly fairytales don´t come true. 91 and 03 were easier to take because we weren´t good enough and our selections brought upon our own downfall.

So yes there is a difference to how you lose as well. But ultimately it sucks the kumara to lose and you torture yourself and people make fun of you no matter how you lose. Winning is sweet and feels good... eventually.

Especially when I am attending the match rather than watching on TV, I would rather win ugly (but playing fair) than lose playing beautiful rugby. I can be philisophical about a game we lose when we play badly - after all we did not deserve to win. I get all torn up when I believe that we were the better team and lost.

To me all that matters is the Win,2008 3Ns Dunedin ,two rookie AB locks,giving Botha/Matfield a bath.Boks win at death knock.BY a wonder solo try Gutted,
Third 3ns 2009 ,Ross had a nightmare match,before being cast into the outer darkness.AB`s leading beaten in injury side gutted.[v Boks]
Third 3Ns Boks leading having outplayed the All Blacks,late tries by McCaw and Dagg elated.
RWC final ugly win over the more deserving France,Elated.
Truth is ABs lose i`m gutted over the years ive seen them win well and ugly,
and lose the same way.
In truth when they lose i`m gutted,BUT it does`nt happen that often,despite the choking jibes i`ve had to put up with over the years.

Bollicks bb

Sick of losing, 3 games by 5 fecking points

Capt gets a red in the semi, we still lose even though we should have won

we miss 35 pts kicked in 3 games

Actually it is about losing AND how you lose

We had bloody better beat the Wallies

I think we're finding that this is the first time SA are going through this lost when we shouldnt have thing with world cups. We're used to it.

I just think its sometimes about getting the run of the green. We got it this time other than the injuries to our 10s.

If SA had narrowly lost to NZ in semis even pdv may have had a case for staying on.

Now i think the biggest movers in world rugby over the next 4 years will be Arg. then SA.

New stars will be emerge and frankly i think SA are now in a perfect position to reassume some dominance- particularly if they incorporate more backplay. They just cant keep ignoring the gains made by players like beale dagg oconnor ioane etc- players who continually run the ball at the line as a first option rather than as a % one. Keep saying it but that is a huge as yet untapped resource of SA rugby and oddly they have the hard and fast grounds to support it.

Gatts wrote:Bollicks bb

Sick of losing, 3 games by 5 fecking points

Capt gets a red in the semi, we still lose even though we should have won

we miss 35 pts kicked in 3 games

Actually it is about losing AND how you lose

We had bloody better beat the Wallies

OK I know youre restricting yourself to the WC games there, but this time for Wales the narrow loss was the fairy take ending, pretty much the entire rugby world went spazzo at the point Shane Wholliams little fists pumped the air. Some events can be bigger than the result, especially in such a retarded fixture whos only real meaning was him.
Wales have made a habit of heartbreaking close dramatic loses, this one wasnt really one of those.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:
Wales have made a habit of heartbreaking close dramatic loses, this one wasnt really one of those.

And wins too, ask the Scots 09, England 05...!

It`s not realistic i know,BUT treat every game the same,put out your best available team.
Then play to the best of your abilities,take RWCs for example it seems on the basis of history.
It takes about eight years to build a winning team,the problem is people
having patience with there team.
Since 2003 the All Blacks have re-built there side at least twice,dropped 16 games out of 103.BUT still only won one RWC in that time DISGRACEFUL?
England in the same period have seemed to be in constant state of rebuilding,3 Coaches gone a RWC Final appearence SUCCESSFUL?
The trouble is for a Coach he is as good as his last Game,the RWC the Holy Grail but only 4 sides have achieved it.
It depends on your expectations,RWC s run on a 4 year cycle,BUT the team HAS to perform in each or is culled.
SH sides HAVE to be able to rebuild quickly because post RWCs there is a large player fallout.
NH sides tend to chop Coaches not players.