Admission of Craig Joubert gaffe was 'normal', says World Rugby chief

The governing body faced strong criticism for publicly stating that Craig Joubert had been wrong to give Australia a last-minute, game-winning penalty in their quarter-final against Scotland.

Bernard Lapasset, the Frenchman who is the president of World Rugby, said: "This has been the biggest and we believe the best Rugby World Cup ever". Scored a brilliant try to get Australia back into the World Cup final. "Look at the teams in the World Cup".

In all more than 2.47 million tickets were sold for the World Cup's 48 matches - 98 percent of the capacity of all venues.

The Rugby Football Union will benefit to the tune of $NZ32 (£15million) from the surplus made by the Rugby World Cup, it has been announced.

"This was a tournament of record attendances and sell-out matches".

Rugby in the southern hemisphere, besides the excellence of New Zealand, who are possibly one of the most complete all round teams, is not that different from the northern hemisphere.

PA Images from the Rugby World Cup

It was a first at the World Cup.

While it was hard for England to compete with the pure rugby buzz created in New Zealand four years ago, the mixture of those two elements mean this year's edition will probably be remembered as the best ever. It was only time during the tournament they published such a review.

In the opening match of the World Cup, England's win over Fiji, Joubert's fellow-South African Jaco Peyper was criticised for using the TMO too often, amid general complaints that replays were causing needlessly long delays to games and robbing match officials of the confidence to make their own decisions. Over 300,000 used the Blippar App to access unique content by scanning their ticket including match previews, view from your seat and interviews.

And, as each union begins to compile its review of their team's performances over the last two months, they will attempt to conclude with a list of recommendations as to how they can bridge that space between the great and the occasionally good. "The whole standard of rugby you've seen in this tournament has lifted".

But Brown told a Twickenham news conference on Sunday: "From England 2015's perspective this had been a huge success".

Meanwhile news is that World Rugby is considering a residency eligibility overhaul, asking for the view of all Test-playing nations with the possibility of extending the current period to five or even six years in a bid to stop countries poaching young talent from rival nations.

The victorious All Blacks celebrated well into the night after their World Cup win at Twickenham.

The 6,000 volunteers who formed "The Pack" have been the faces of the tournament, welcoming millions of fans to England and to the game of rugby.

To the non-rugby fan it turned patriotism into passing indifference.

The length and breadth of the country embraced the tournament, with stadiums rammed from Exeter to Newcastle, from Cardiff to Stratford. One of the key Japanese players has signed with a club overseas. Whereas the entire Japanese team had a clear plan of what they wanted to do, England were totally lost.

That the Six Nations sides, Scotland and Wales excepted, provided the biggest disappointments of this wonderful tournament is a massive shame and sitting on top of the miserabilist tree looking down on the French, Italians and Irish, are undoubtedly the hosts. Highlights included the worldwide Defence Rugby Competition, the Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby Community Festival, Rugby's Got Balls, supported by Rugby Borough Council featuring large-scale rugby sculptures on display across Rugby town and a HAKA challenge in Manchester.

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