The rugby world cup is over, won on Saturday by the best team in the tournament who defeated the second best team. It doesn’t always happen that way, of course, but in this case New Zealand demonstrated loud and clear why they remain the team that all others aspire to be (so obvious is this fact that I actually wrote these notes 5 hours before the final even started!).

We saw some wonderful games and some superb performances from teams with no or not much in the way of rugby tradition or background. Who will ever forget Japan, small in stature but with lion hearts, beating the might of the South African juggernaut?

We English may have been disappointed by our inept national team and understandably so. However, forget that, we may have been the hosts but the competition was never just  about England, it was about world rugby and the world of rugby is probably in a better place as a consequence of this tournament.

We may not be very good at the sport (at the moment, I add optimistically!) but when it comes to putting on a show we are right up there with the very best. Virtually all commentators agreed that this was the best ever world cup, best for the quality of the rugby and best, too, for the organisation and spectacle. As a nation, we can all feel pride in that.