Who will win the Rugby World Cup Finals ?

So now we have three New Zealand coaches in the semifinals and unbelievably, the same final four sides as in 1987.

What we have seen is that it is mindsets that wins quarter final rugby, not game plans. The young Australian team believed they could do it, and they did. Not pretty rugby though. Many rugby writers are saying "South Africa absolutely did not deserve to lose to Australia, but the Diggers deserved to win because they dug deep and refused to surrender."  South Africa did not have someone with the game-breaking talents and skills of  James O'Connor or a player that tackled and defended like Pocock, nor the genius of Genia.

The Welsh seemed to have a stronger mental attitude on the day and you could see and feel Gatlin's tenacious attitude coming through in every aspect of the Welsh game, as they tackled early before the irish could gather speed, and defended in such an instinctive manner.

In this mornings rugby websites most are picking Wales to win the finals, but they forget France needed just the first 40 minutes to send the English home packing. My colleague in New Delhi  John Roche was writing before the quarter finals that Wales would be playing South Africa in the finals. A number of my Irish friends label the All Blacks as 'chokers' and I think it has to do with some village Irish team that beat the All Blacks on an off day way back in the last millenium. My neighbour and hotel manager Jerome who lives in my apartment block, told me after the All Blacks thrashed France by 20 points a few weeks nack, "we will see you in the finals." Jerome is half way right thus far.

Argientina are always tough and they gave the All Blacks the semi final workout they needed. Even with both Dan Carter and now second string five-eights Colin Slade out injured, the replacement Aaron Cruden played well for the 50 minutes he was on the ground. With man-of-the -match Piri Weepu playing inside him, I feel Cruden can outfox the mecurial Cooper. But one has to wonder why Henry didn't recall Nick Evans. The All Blacks have the talent and strength  in the pack to dominate the Australian scrum, and heaps of speed in the backs to outscore, but it won't be easy. I predict a close encounter.

Roll on this weekend for we are in for a feast of rugby where we'll see minds winning over games plans,  increasing injuries as weary bodies and bandages buckle under these bruising encounters, but we will all be on the edge of our seats hoping our teams will win. At least there will be one New Zealand coach in the final !   And, I am picking a NZ vs France final with NZ taking the WWE trophy.

Land Rovers, landmines and fireworks in the field.

Land Rovers have changed little over the last 40 years and have been the work horses of our Red Cross field operations. My first Red Cross assignment was in Vietnam in 1971 and we had a trusty Landrover. Transportation may not have changed much, but the way we work has changed dramatically. I remember puttings sandbags under the seats and extra metal plating on the floor of our Land Rover, as land mines were prevalent in the remote highland areas we worked in.

The New Zealand Red Cross Refugee Welfare Team and their trusty Land Rover in South Vietnam 1971. From Left to right: Simon Evans agriculture, Bob McKerrow livelihoods and education, Adrian Lattimore nurse, John Gordon leader and agriculture, Peter Barnes mechanic and sanitation. Photo: Bob McKerrow

The next year, early 1972, we flew a short-wheel base Land Rover to Bangladesh by NZ Airforce C-130 to be part of an ICRC/IFRC joint operation where over 20 national societies sent socio-medical teams. Our current President Tadateru Konoe was leader of the Japanese Red Cross team, and I was leader of the NZ Red Cross team. With bridges blown up by the retreating army, Land Rovers got us across many rivers and roadless terrain to provide life-saving services to many of the ten million returning refugees from Bangladesh, who had been sheltering in India for over a year. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Iain Logan and I have discussed the merits of Land Rovers over the years, often over pints of beer.. The last of the Series 1, the  1958 SWB was a classic and when Iain was driving trucks of relief supplies as a Red Cross volunteer for the Biafran Red Cross operation, he mentioned to me how SWB Land Rovers were the backbone of medical and relief teams.

Our briefing in the New Zealand Red Cross headquarters in 1971 by Coimmander Maurice Ashdown. Left to right: Simon Evans, Adrian Lattimore, Bob McKerrow and Peter Barnes. Wow ! let's bring back the shorts as tropical attire for delegates.

The New Zealand Red Cross sent another refugee welfare team back to Vietnam in 1973 and I was appointed leader. We purchased a new LWB Land Rover. I drove the it from Wellington to the port of Tauranga, where it went by ship to Saigon, and drove it from there to Pleiku in the Central Highlands where we were running recovery programmes for IDPs. That is where I first met George Weber, who was a first-time delegate for the IFRC/ICRC joint Indo-China operation. George later went on to the the Secretary general of the IFRC.

Land Rovers again enabled the Federation to support the Ethiopian Red Cross with a massive drought relief operation in 1978-79. We would cram full our Land Rovers with grain and drive from 7,000 feet in Dessie (Wollo) up to over 12,000 feet in the highlands where over a million people were starving.

A photo of me left with a young Ethiopian Red Cross volunteers.

Photo: Ato Tsehayou Seyoum (who is now head of delegation for Canadian Red Cross in India.)

Forty years on, I still enjoy travelling in the trusty Land Rover, although it has many rivals. This was shot earlier this year while visiting a tsunami funded water supply in Ampara, Sri Lanka. Someone asked me the other day what I am going to do when I retire from Red Cross, and I said " I will probably end up in charge of fireworks and entertainment.in a red Cross branch somewhere."

(1) Astonishingly, at the Diplomatic Conference in August 1864, the man without whom the occasion would never have taken place was not an official delegate. Henry Dunant was designated chairman of the entertainments committee, charged with organising social gathering and firework displays.


(1)Quote from: C. Moorhead, Dunant’s Dream (New York, Harper Collins 1998 )p.44