Two views on the final match: 23 October 2011 La grande finale: France v New Zealand – Martin de Jong No – the title doesn’t represent any bias towards the no 2 team. But second-time around, can France pull something out of the blue, and beat the New Zealand All Blacks? Some would say it would take a miracle. But we all know that ...

16 October (Auckland) For all of you who are still moaning at Wales vs. France. Wales may seem to be a fairer team on the field but when we look at the stats of equality, Wales gets knocked out like Kevin Mealamu and Tana Umaga clearing Brian O’Driscoll out of the ruck. France is ranked no.5 on equality, while Wales is ranked 9th. In most countri ...

15 October (Auckland) On the numbers, there’s little dispute over who’s favourite to win on social equality here. France’s number 6 place on our rankings (just below NZ) is earned through high places on gender equality and the happy planet index, and a good showing on income equality (its Gini measure of 32.7 places it 5th among the rugby nat ...

8 October (Auckland) Neither England nor France is a stellar performer when it comes to fairness: both are ranked mid-table in our rankings, and with middling scores in most categories. It’s France, however, who take the early lead from income and gender equality. France’s income equality in particular is stellar for what is a reasonably large, ...

1 October (Wellington) The three Pacific nations face huge battles on the rugby pitch this weekend to achieve some mighty upsets that would enable any of them to get to the quarterfinals – rather like the battles they face on the world stage. Size and isolation count against them. In both rugby and social equality, France places above Tonga. The ...

24 September (Auckland) Close rivals on the rugby pitch, New Zealand and France are also evenly matched on our social equality rankings – at 5th and 6th respectively. But just as they play two very different styles on the field, they’re also quite divergent on the individual indicators that led to those rankings. France is the better performer ...

Sunday 18 September (Napier) Today sees another clash of two closely ranked teams, with Canada hoping to crush one of their country’s former colonial masters (and most of New Zealand likely backing them). The key equality measures – of income and gender equality – could hardly be much closer, with Canada taking the slightest of advantages in ...