Sorry, sorry, sorry. But this World Cup is too long.

Yes, I agree the Haka is a meaningless one sided warm-up (I used to do some very choice hand movements when facing it and had a laugh); All Black Ali Williams should have had his head guard lifted and chucked for miles when he left it within spitting distance of the Scots; oh, and all the games should have been played in one country – well, what part of France contains Murrayfield?

But hats off to the All Blacks for at least trying to persuade us that the Haka is heritage and theatre. If we hadn’t had it at the weekend we would have had nothing. Personally, I think you should be allowed to do whatever you want in response to it.

But here we are, and there are still four weeks to go until the final. It is hugely costly, hugely exciting, but it’s also too long by about two weeks.

The cricket World Cup lasted too long and it felt it too, and it is because ours is so long that we have meaningless matches. That game between Scotland and New Zealand was meaningless

The football World Cup is three to four weeks start to finish. And that’s enough for me thank you.

The players do get a good rest in between games, but I am away to Shanghai tomorrow, am there for three weeks, and then I come back and still get to see the final!

Ka mate, Ka mate as they say in the Cotter household.

John Beattie(Glawsgow Accies and Heriots) is a former Scotland international who hosts radio and TV programmes for BBC Scotland.

This article was posted on 28-Sep-2007, 20:02 by Hugh Barrow.