THE idea that England could defeat Papua New Guinea by 68 points or more was always likely to be a fantasy, and so it proved.
And, having beaten them by 22 points, it was always highly unlikely that Tonga would beat Samoa by the required 46 points to allow England to continue to the semi-finals in the World Cup. And so it proved again.
Instead we are left with Australia playing Samoa on Sunday, and New Zealand facing Tonga the day before, with the winners going forward to the World Cup Final on 15th November in Brisbane.
Although I suspect that both the Aussies and the Kiwis will emerge victorious, the great thing is that we can anticipate close games played in front of full houses.
Not many years ago, when we only had the big three of Australia, England and New Zealand, the fourth side in the semi-finals was usually Fiji and they were frequently caned by Australia running up a big score.
Fortunately that era now seems to be well and truly behind us, although the Fijians did suffer a humiliating 78-0 defeat against New Zealand in what was effectively a quarter-final game on Saturday after they had held Australia to a 36-22 scoreline only a week earlier.
On the basis of that scoreline I would suggest that New Zealand have to be the favourites to win the World Cup in Brisbane, regardless of whether they find themselves facing Australia or Samoa.
This World Cup has been a great success because of the presence of the South Pacific nations.
But the question facing International Rugby League (IRL) is where to hold the next tournament.
The obvious answer is to hold it in the northern hemisphere, and the only country that really could host the tournament is England.
However, would that be the right move, both for the game in this country and for the game as a whole?
I’m not sure that it would.
And that’s because I can’t imagine that the atmosphere at games that we’ve seen over the last three weeks could be replicated in November in England.
The supporters of the South Pacific teams would be sparse, compared to what we saw over the weekend, for example.
If we are going to retain that connection with all the supporters I believe that the tournament, if it isn’t to be held in Australia again, should be held in New Zealand, which has enough stadiums of the right quality and which has thousands of Tongans, Samoans, Fijians and Cook Islanders in its population, while we have seen with the New Zealand Warriors how the game has grown so much in that country.
And the period from mid-October to mid-November is springtime in New Zealand, as opposed to autumn in this country.
I don’t really like to admit it, but I suspect a World Cup in New Zealand would be a better experience than a World Cup in this country.
I will await a decision from the IRL with great interest.
But bearing in mind the recent announcement that the IRL, alongside the NRL, will be organising its own tournaments in future, I would have thought a tournament in New Zealand would have had considerable appeal.
Meanwhile a new generation of Samoan and Tongan stars have become the new heroes of their nations and of this World Cup.
And, to illustrate how far the Tongan and Samoan hinterland stretches, there were pre-game parades as far afield as Houston, Salt Lake City and San Francisco as the Tongan and Samoa communities bolted speakers and flags to their cars and let the Americans know what was happening on the far side of the world.
