Antipodeans are often seen as arrogant by their former colonial masters. (Probably something to do with the fact that they are generally tall, handsome and good at sport.) So it's time to relish the hubris.

When news reached Cardiff of England's win over Australia, one Kiwi journalist said in the press box: "That's us just got a bye through to the final." His comments a couple of hours later, after France had knocked the All Blacks out, went unrecorded.

Anton Oliver had more to say. It seems he has been reading All Quiet on the Western Front, about World War I. "They describe how no man's land is quiet," he said afterwards. "That's what it feels like - quiet - in the changing room, and in the players' hearts and minds.

"In no man's land, there's a putrid smell, death . . . that's a bit dramatic surely not, but you know what I mean. No man's land is a place where nothing exists."

A similar sense of perspective was kept back home. One caller to a talk-sport show said he was phoning from the top of a tree, from which he was about to hang himself. And that there was a queue below.

New Zealand's foreign minister did the diplomatic bit by lambasting England's Wayne Barnes, who missed a forward pass for France's winning try. "It's 80 minutes long, it's a very short time, you get an incompetent referee and that's the result," blasted Winston Peters.

He has cause for concern. New Zealand's loss to France in the semis of the 1999 World Cup was seen as a key factor in that year's general election, when the ruling National government was defeated by Labour. Labour face a general election next year and trailed the National Party by five percentage points in polls, even before Cardiff.

In Paris, the party reached monumental proportions, although it almost got ugly on the Champ de Mars, where a 12-metre-high rugby ball has been built to showcase the next World Cup . . . guess where? The giant ball, which says "100% Pure New Zealand" on it, was soon surrounded by French fans. Kiwi staff inside it, probably fearing they were about to be rolled into the Seine, hastily got to work crafting a sign congratulating France.

Hamilton Academical are rightly lauded for their commitment to their community and it was good to see on Saturday that they try to instil good habits from an early age. A list of finable offences for youth team players is pinned up in a prominent position in one of the locker rooms, ranging from 50p for "dirty boots" to a massive £2 for "failing to attend training without informing Frankie".

Admirably, some of the worst fines are for aggressive and unsporting behaviour, bad language and mouthing off to referees.

On Saturday's evidence, this dedication to not swearing at officials is yet to be embraced by the fans; in mitigation, the referee was Dougie McDonald.