Referee Wayne Barnes shows a red card to New Zealand captain Sam Cane during the Rugby World Cup final between the All Blacks and South Africa. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
Where do you start with a game like that? The Springboks' 12-11 victory in the Rugby World Cup final will be talked about for a long, long time - much like the last time the two great rivals played in the biggest game of all. However, this one will go down in history for some different reasons.
Instead of Nelson Mandela it seems like Wayne Barnes and his refereeing crew will be the ones most associated with the intense contest, one that probably wouldn't hold up to any aesthetic scrutiny had it not been for such high stakes. Sam Cane is in good company when it comes to All Blacks who have been sent off, even just the ones this season, but now finds himself as the only man to ever have that happen in a World Cup final.
Just let that sink in: the All Black captain got sent off in a World Cup final. And really, you can't argue with the call. How it stacked up with Siya Kolisi's let off is the main talking point.
A dejected Sam Cane after being given a red card. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
In a way it was fitting that the game mostly resembled a serious street fight for most of the time, even the only try of the game was looking like a beautiful bit of work by the All Blacks before it was marred by a dusty final transition. It didn't matter, as Beauden Barrett's try stood despite everyone watching the game thinking the TMO would jump in and figure out some way of making Barnes take another look at it.
We can talk all day about how the TMO system has now turned rugby into a way of watching four blokes you wish you hadn't started talking to at a party have a conversation amongst themselves, but really, that's not the point.
As hard as it is for All Black fans to swallow, the side probably didn't deserve to get over such a committed and ferocious Springbok outfit. This game was won in the same way the Springboks had always done it, by brutally smashing their opposition into submission.
Cane's send off was clumsily deserved. Frizell's yellow the same. Siya Kolisi's drew howls of indignation but the reality is that the game right now has made it that way. As long as there's a discussion amongst a group of officials, there's a way of coming to any sort of conclusion to any sort of situation.
South Africa's Cheslin Kolbe is tackled by New Zealand's Will Jordan. Photo: AFP / ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT
There's a cruel symmetry to All Black fans' perception of Barnes. It was his non-call back in 2007 that started his test rugby officiating story, now it ends with this. He is a victim of the technocratic environment that has been driven by a need to find definitive black or white in a sport that was only ever designed to be shades of grey.
It's painful that the game actually came down to goal kicking. Just like in 1995, when Andrew Mehrtens couldn't land a drop goal that would have put the All Blacks in front, Richie Mo'unga and Jordie Barrett missed crucial kicks that would have probably won the game.
Absolutely they were the toughest attempts the two men could make - Mo'unga's conversion from hard on the touchline and Barrett's penalty about 50 metres on an angle - but that's where crunch games are won and lost. Just ask the Springboks because that's how they even made the final in the first place.
Handre Pollard, their hero from the semifinal, didn't get to pull off a clutch kick to win but made sure of all the Springboks' chances. Four penalty goals in the first half and a hefty diet of his right boot in the second was the key to glory, along with an almost psychotic commitment to defence led by Pieter-Steph du Toit. The big flanker did the job his country needed from him - ruthless, punishing and relentless.
It was a brave effort by the All Blacks, that can't be denied. It will go into the history books as a modern day sequel to the epic 1995 final.
The final score was only separated by one point - but that's the difference between ultimate glory and coming home with nothing.
