BRENDAN GALLAGHER
RUGBY MATTERS
A weekly look at the game’s other talking points

Proper preparation: Ben Kay and Steve Thompson celebrate beating the All Blacks in 2003

THERE are many reasons why the southern hemisphere giants have won seven of the eight World Cups thus far – and let’s not discount the painful possibility that they are actually better rugby players – but one of the most obvious rarely gets a mention.
Every World Cup in the professional era has been staged in the autumn, ie at the end of the southern hemisphere season and at the start of the nort...