{"id":338941,"date":"2023-10-15T23:02:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T23:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=338941"},"modified":"2023-10-16T00:00:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T00:00:59","slug":"cruel-reality-slaps-world-cup-hosts-in-the-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=338941","title":{"rendered":"'Cruel' reality slaps World Cup hosts in the face"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS:\ufeff<\/strong> Shattered France players were grappling with the gravity of disappointing a nation after the Rugby World Cup hosts were bounced out in the quarter-finals by a street smart South Africa.<\/a><\/p>\n

Les Bleus fielded arguably their strongest ever squad on home soil and toppled the All Blacks as part of a 4-0 pool blitz.<\/p>\n

Bookmakers found it hard to split France and world No.1 Ireland as favourites for the title but now both are out as the southern hemisphere flipped the script on a supposed northern takeover.<\/p>\n

Watch all the action from Rugby World Cup 2023 on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> Every match ad free, live and on demand in 4K UHD<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"France<\/p>\n

France has never won a World Cup and they have been beaten in three finals.\ufeff<\/p>\n

They looked the superior side for much of the night but the Springboks got strong production from their experienced stars as France tightened late under the weight \ufeffof expectation.<\/p>\n

"It's obviously cruel. We're disappointed and despondent tonight. That's sport," fullback Thomas Ramos said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> France knocked out of Rugby World Cup by champs<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> America unconvinced by Tszyu despite brutal win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Classy' NRL journeyman breaks record in huge result<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Cheslin<\/p>\n

Sharpshooter Ramos had a conversion charged down by the brilliant Cheslin Kolbe in what proved to be a crucial two point swing.<\/p>\n

\ufeffCharles Ollivon, the excellent flanker, said the 29-28 loss "hurts others more than it hurts us. For all the support we've had, it's heartbreaking."<\/p>\n

Like Ireland, France were blessed with passionate, fanatical and good natured support but couldn't deliver on the knockout stage.<\/p>\n

\"Cheslin\u00a0Kolbe's<\/p>\n

Matthieu Jalibert, the playmaker who made a decent fist of deputising for the injured Romain Ntamack, expressed his anguish to a packed press conference.<\/p>\n

"What makes us even sadder is that we weren't able to make them proud, to make them happy. For this group, it's a lot of disappointment," Jalibert said.<\/p>\n

"We're going to try to find something positive by saying that we have a lot of young players, a fine generation. But the reality is that today we failed to get out of the quarter-finals of a home World Cup. That's going to be hard to accept. It's cruel."<\/p>\n

\"Antoine<\/p>\n

Some players, captain Antoine Dupont included, had minor grumbles at the refereeing of New Zealand's Ben O'Keeffe\ufeff but accepted they didn't handle the big moments as well as the reigning world champions.<\/p>\n

"We can find all the explanations we want, but it's over. It's the end of the adventure for us. It's a shame for this group, who deserved to go further – we'll never play another World Cup in France. It's tough to end like this," Jalibert said.<\/p>\n

At least France don't have to play the dreaded third versus fourth final.\ufeff Fine hosts throughout, the 'Coupe du monde' party will continue for another two weeks.<\/p>\n

There just won't be a tickertape parade on the Champs-Elysees.\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS:\ufeff Shattered France players were grappling with the gravity of disappointing a nation after the Rugby World Cup hosts were bounced out in the quarter-finals […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":338943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=338941"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338947,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338941\/revisions\/338947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/338943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=338941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=338941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=338941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}