WOW, what an amazing Rugby World Cup. The major teams got squeezed by the lower ranked teams and some got a real fright! Ireland beat Australia, and Tonga beat France. Sensational rugby. Auckland turned on great weather for the opening weekend and about 200,000 people turned out to celebrate the start of the Cup in downtown Auckland! Unbelievable! There are flags supporting every country all over the place. A great atmosphere with visitors being warmly welcomed and rugby camaraderie alive and well. The "minow" teams gave their all and sometimes came close to upsetting some of the major teams! 12 teams dropped out of the cup after the pools stage.

The sudden death matches began with the Quarter finals on 8 October. South Africa, England, Argentina and Ireland were knocked out leaving Wales to play France and New Zealand to play Australia in the semi finals on 15th and 16th October. After 2 great clashes, New Zealand and France emerged as the finalists to play on 23 October.

Then what a cliffhanger of a final with a win eventually to New Zealand over France 8-7. 4 million kiwis almost had heart failures at the same time!

Congratulations to the All Blacks for hanging on and their great performances through the cup. And also to the French for playing out of their skins and making the final as exciting as it could possibly be.

The next World Cup will be in England in 2015 and then Japan in 2019. The 2011 World Cup was a spectacular success! Lets hope they are too.

For latest Rugby World Cup results visit our Rugby World Cup Games page.

For the latest Rugby World Cup news and comment, visit our Rugby World Cup news page.

Our Rugbyzone provides unofficial New Zealand rugby information for fans - games schedules and major match dates, rugby venues, participating rugby teams, info on towns hosting major rugby events, where to buy rugby gear, lots of up to date Rugby news and more.

The major international rugby tournaments in New Zealand include Super 15, Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations between NZ, Australia and South Africa. This becomes the Quad Nations in 2012 with the addition of Argentina.

The main domestic rugby competitions are the ITM Cup, Heartland Championship and Ranfurly Shield.

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