Tuff game to watch, on the edge stuff. Congrats to AB's, commesurations to the French. Not interested in bagging the ref or media. Wonder if we can win it in 2015. New coaching team, will be interesting to watch the AB's progress thru to 2015.

All Blacks won the game with their 4th preferred No 10 and with N0 9 who had a shocker ( he meant to cover kicking duties of No 10). Ab's defense was superb. They probably finished the game with their plan c or d. No doubts French played well. In my opinion AB truly deserved the victory. I do not think very many teams would have survived with these unexpected situations. As for ref- he got to play the game as he sees and you expect him to be consistent and he was last Sunday. French gathered the ball from offside position to breach AB's defense to score the try, nobody is complaining about it. The commentary about ref bias is equally one sided. Ref bias is certainly not as bad as the one we had in 2007 QF against France. True World champions should not only win the finals and should set the standards for the next few years and I am sure AB's will do that. World champions should play consistently well , not someone who surprises everybody by playing one good game in the tournament.

Like most kiwis I was on a knife edge during the whole game. At the final whistle it was relief that we finally did it. We will never experience the type pressure that these guys were playing under. The weight of a nation, the expectaion of a world rugby community. The ghosts of passed failiers their own individual failiers and self doubts that dogged them during the tournement ...(ala Donald, Weepu, Cruden, the 2007 WRC team members.) The AB's were good enough to overcome all that, so they deserve to be WORLD CHAMPIONS in my book. France were LUCKY to make the final and if they had won it would have been one of the most underserved world titles in the history of sport.

I don't really care either way who was more deserving, or whether the ref was fair or not. We won and thats all that matters - can't change that now.

Plus, the ABs won all their games no matter how low or high the difference in scores while France lost two in the pool matches... so even though it wasn't a very convincing win by any large margin, points on the board is what matters.

Slynn   #230   via mobile 11:22 am Oct 26 2011

I really don't get it why everyone is saying the French played better since the All Blacks won n if they had converted their kicks early on it may have been a diff game .. the ab had less resting days to the French n the French had to only beat a 14 man welsh team Richie played w a sore foot we had lost dan carter overall I say well done All Blacks

I am a neutral. I started the match completely supporting the ABs and finished it completely supporting the French. Why - because the referee was so poor. Watch without bias and it is quite shocking.

Of course the ABs are the best team in the world. Of course they were the best team in the RWC But the final was not played on a level playing field - try looking across the world rugby blogs and you will see well over 90% of neutral rugby followers are saying how poor the ref was. It was not fixed but the occasion got to him in a big way.

Susie #219 Susie, you are right, it's not fair of me to put everyone in the same basket. Now, by having said that, believe me, where I live there was a majority of people being pretty bad. Also, during the 6 weeks leading to the final, here in NZ, they went on and on trashing and bashing the French, on telly, in the paper, at the radio, but also on the streets, shops etc .... I have been an observer for all that time. Again, not everyone, but many. At the end of the final, people, the ones in the stadium, whistled when Dusautoir spoke. Again, not every single kiwi, but a majority.

I'm French, and i watched the game in my bedroom in Paris, and I have to admit that every second of the game was worth for me to awake in such an early time a sunday morning, especially after the saturday night I had... It was an incredible world cup tournament and I think that Rugby is the big winner of the Cup. Congratulation for the Cup and for the organization of the tournament! The final was dramatic, epic and breathtaking, loved it! The All-Blacks is the best team in the world, for sure, and we are proud to have lost in such a manner against such opponents! See you in England!

Dusautoir was right about a couple of the calls not going his way, but during their period late in the 2nd half? Watch a replay, @ how many of their 15+ phases did the 1st arriving Frenchman & attempt to stay on his feet? How could the ABs give away a penalty if France effectively killed the contest at the ruck. Another observation, late in the game when McCaw was a bit slow up from a ruck & a bit dazed, the coverage showed a replay of Dusautoir rucking him w/the ball clearly 1m away then throw a knee? Anyone else see that replay

I am an old kiwi living in the uk, how old?, well lets say old enough to have had a beer with my father in Dunedin when we last won the cup in 87, he has since passed away. I was starting to worry that I wouldn’t be around to have a pint with my son by the time we finally won one again!! thankfully we have now ticked that box.

As a kiwi I thought that world cups were ours by divine right, and why not? we would have a fantastic tournament playing beautiful rugby, winning games by 60 points or 90 points, then come up against a defensive team and were shocked when we lost, normally citing poor refs, food poisoning and anything else we could grasp (yes I do still hold Susie responsible for my tears in 95, much to the mocking of my South African friends)

I didn’t really see much of the game, as I had my eyes closed and felt quite sick for most of it, However now that we have won, actually it feels quite good to win ugly, to win by one point, I think I will savour this one because with our 1st5 drop out rate I am sure we wouldn’t have won this anywhere else but at home, to hell with beautiful rugby, enjoy it my fellow kiwi’s and treat the world cup with the respect it clearly deserves, its not that easy to win the damn things. But the bottom line? I am happy!! and once the nausea and shaking fade I might be able to walk again!!