At the 2007 rugby World Cup, the New Zealand All Blacks lost in the quarterfinals against France, which at the time many blamed on the referee for missing a forward pass (myself included). By today’s rules that wouldn’t happen due to a change in the laws, but it doesn’t necessarily mean New Zealand would have won either.

After the game, then All Black coach Sir Graham Henry accepted the situation, and said that his team needed to be good enough to beat other teams even in the face of adversity. They knew where they had been done wrong, but they also knew they had to be better even in such circumstances.

This was a great lesson for me, made even greater by the fact that NZ kept Sir Graham Henry on as head coach in a move that turned out to be a great one as the following two world cups attest to.

When seriously anything can happen, don’t blame the situation, accept it, and work towards a better solution. Nothing ever goes completely to plan, if it did, life would be very boring indeed. Best to take things as they come, accept them, and move on.