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“France won, I cheered,” says Lakan Beech. Wales may be the fairer team on the field, but as a nation France wins hands down as a fair and just nation. He was blogging at Level with Me, which is a project of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, which uses the Rugby World Cup to get people thinking about social and global inequality.
They ranked the 20 countries competing in the international rugby competition based on various social indicators, pointing to social equality or inequality.They then compiled all the rankings for each indicator to arrive at an overall ranking for each team.
They say they are not knocking international sporting competitions. But they want to see the positive values on the sporting field – fairness, an equal chance of success, unbiased refereeing – reflected in the social world. So that everyone has a chance, on a level playing field, to fulfil their potential.
Lakan is a Year 8 student at Thorndon School in Wellington and a rugby fan. He attends Mass at Te Kainga Catholic Marae. Here is his blog.
For all of you who are still moaning at Wales vs France. Wales may seem to be a fairer team on the field but when we look at the stats of equality, Wales gets knocked out like Kevin Mealamu and Tana Umaga clearing Brain O’Driscoll out of the ruck.
France is ranked no.5 on equality, while Wales is ranked 9th. In most countries rugby union is only played by the richer classes and soccer is more working class. Even though rugby is the national sport in Wales, it still has an effect. What does that mean? It means the gap between the rugby players and the football players is much smaller. No wonder Wales kicked like the pass of a Japanese hooker.
France also ranked No. 2 on gender inequality and No. 3 on happy planet which means they had a whole penny to enjoy, not a Halfpenny. Neither team is very innocent when it comes to military spending, but yet again France salutes its hands and smashes the ball right out of the line-out and into their hands. Wales only managed to break the line and get some points on the board is because Wales is a more peaceful country, has a less corrupt government and something that deserves a try, they are great at working with aid.
Wales lost. Get over it. If Wales were the great team we’ve been raving about then they would have been able to play without Sam Warburton. Yes it damaged their scrum and line-out, but wasn’t it Mike Phillips who was the magic man?
Wales had at least 3 scoring opportunities in the game to take the lead but they Sonny Billed them like they were Quade Cooper. So if you look at the facts again you’ll see a much different score. Instead of France skimming up a close encounter with a 14 man squad, they get away with a comfortable victory and a well deserved spot in the final.
France won and I cheered.
Go All Blacks!
Read more blogs on Level with me
Image: Fox Sport
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