Sunday's Rugby World Cup final is a must-watch event, even though the boot has had far too much say in the previous six, writes Frank Keating in The Guardian.
"It began on 9 September, far too long ago. And after all the energy and expense and the dwarf-throwing, all the injuries, the boasts, the headlines, and the gruesome Haka encores, they say the whole Kiwi caboodle is bound to end this Sunday in a discordant anticlimactic mismatch.
"Who, anyway, remotely expects the World Cup final to be an all-singing, all-dancing spectacular? They never are. World Cup finals have no rich pedigree, no vivid provenance of colourful or inspiring back-story to bank on.
"The very first final, in this same town and between the same teams as Sunday, was a turgid home-team walkover: New Zealand 29, France 9. There were four tries - undistinguished, long-forgotten things maybe, but at least there were four, twice as many as in any other final.
"In the five finals since that humdrum premiere in 1987 only five tries have been scored - by Tony Daly in 1991, Owen Finegan and Ben Tune (1999), Jason Robinson and Lote Tuqiri (2003) and, er, that's it. Not one stirred the blood."
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