So....

Alright, seeing as everyone else in the world is writing about it, here's my epistle.

(Oh, and for the three of you who read the blog who don't like rugby, feel free to skip down to the dresses, this doesn't concern you. Although may i take a moment to suggest you don't say "get over it, it's just a game." It's not and you know it. Rugby is a huge part of the way this country feels about itself and sees itself. That's been knocked. It's why there are only two kinds of people - those who care, and those who emphatically don't - there's not many people on the fence.)

With 2 minutes to go, biting down on my thumbnail, surrounded by jubilant french people, i was wondering how I was going to do my job, and interview them.

Someone at work described it as feeling numb, and that is true. Not quite sure what just happened, and how, and why, and what the fuck?

After writing stories, a package, and doing two live Q and A's for the BBC, I was thoroughly sick of talking about it, and thinking about it.

But New Zealand being the country it is, you can't escape it. You can't walk down a street, watch the news, talk to your friends.

I can't even look at my own blog, what with the one word post I wrote as soon as I got next to a computer, and the news stories on the sidebar taunting me.

So yeah, it sucks. I nearly cried. There is a national depression, which will cue a national bloodletting (for my two cents worth, I don't think we should get rid of Graham Henry). For a while we'll look to other sports, other pastimes, other things.

But here's the thing. This is why we love sport. I've tried to explain this to people who don't like sport, before and never really succeeded. You either get it, or you don't.

At it's heart, sport is like a really good story. There's heroes, villians (I'm looking at you, Wayne Barnes), emotions, twists, upsets, winners and losers.

This time, we happen to be on the bad end of it. Dissect all you like, discuss whether we are chokers (we're not), whether the pass was forward (it so was), whether the All Blacks just didn't play very smart rugby (you might be on to something there). Try and figure out where we went wrong, by all means. Did professionalism kill the game? Was the rotation policy the right move? Do we care a mite too much about the World Cup? Is it really fair for 22 players to carry the weight of expectation of a nation on their shoulders without buckling under it?

But Ted is right. It's sport. It's what happens. Great teams get beaten by good teams all the time. France turned up to Cardiff wanting it more than us. It sucks, sure, but we'll get over it. Eventually. With the help of an upset or two of our own.

You know who I feel bad for? The Silver Ferns - way to put pressure on them, guys.