One roll of the dice too many
South Africa 15
England 6
This was a tough old armwrestle that was in the balance until the last 10 minutes. Credit to the Poms, who for the third big game in a row dug deep and and put themselves within a decision or two of defending their title.
But the accolades rightly go to the Springboks, who showed they had the class in the tank to take the Gambler’s bet and raise it when it really mattered. And the winning of the game was a familiar story: up front. Credit to the boks’ tight five who just about held the scrum but then well and truly dominated the line-out. The Boks stole 7 of Englands 19 throws. Most importantly, the whole 8 refused to be dominated at the break down, just tipping the balance enough to force England into actions that they were lucky not to be treated more harshly for.
The turning point that will be remembered was the Cueto disallowed try, when following a lightning break from Matthew Tait (how well he stepped up to the mark in this match, does this mean he gets another game?) the wingers toe was adjudged to clip the whitewash before he dotted down the ball. The bitch-tits commentators had thought they’d found a scapegoat until post match in the studio, where to his credit, Martin Johnson immediately acknowledged the truth when he saw it. A ballsy call from the TMO Stu Dickenson who took an uncomfortable amount of time to make it.
For mine though, there were two other turning points in the first half that England were lucky to ride. The first was when Lewis Moody tripped a player and was called for it. He was rightly penalised, but by law isn’t this instant yellow? The other call that to me was even clearer was when the South Africans had run about 5 phases on the England line and were persistently professionally fouled. They got the three, but considering how the rest of this world cup has been reffed, this was pretty puzzling. Rolland didn’t even warn the poms. A yellow in either of these occasions would have drastically changed this match.
The deserved man of the match was Victor Matfield who again demonstrated why he is the worlds best second row, even throwing in a deft cross field kick behind the England line for good measure. Franz Steyn played a blinder with his straight running and 47m penalty goal – what a player this guy is already at 20. Percy’s dead-eye kicking was faultless with 4/4, despite playing half the match with a limp (perma-tan build up), and games like this were made for Butch James who stepped up to the mark and took the pressure.
For the poms, as mentioned the pack had another good day, they all played equally well but were missing that extra oomph that for the last 30 when the points weren’t behind them. Catt had a good tactical kicking game until coming off for being too old, and Cueto also looked sharp. All is not well with Johnny Wilkinson though, and when the forwards didn’t make him look quite so good, his game couldn’t make up for it. His kicking from hand was surprisingly poor.
But a big congrats to the Boks; they backed themselves throughout this World Cup and had the breadth in game plan and depth in players to take on whatever came their way. I wonder if Jake will pass his job application?
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Tags: England, live rugby score, match preview, match statistics, post match review, rugby world cup, South Africa, springboks, victor matfield
Matt a.k.a Gagger or GAGR (short for GreenAndGoldRugby, not a fetish)
Matt started G&GR just before the 2007 Rugby World Cup and has been enslaved ever since. You can follow him on Twitter here http://www.twitter.com/Matt_Gagger 
BOKKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MBE/OBE that, you 10 man Pommy Colonialists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lovely to WATCH, JUST LOVELY TO WATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who has the best credentials for the Wallabies coaching job?
Jake White.
Congratulations to the Springboks!
Marvelous, showing the 10 man Dad’s Army how it’s done, making Johnny Wilko (Bravo-Alpha-Delta, November-Oscar. Tango-Echo-November) look like what he really is (a mediocre provincial No. Ten and a world class kicker). South Africa deserves to be up with Australia as dual Cup Winners. In a balanced universe The Kiwis would have won the other two, oh wait, that did win one, didn’t they; (it was so long ago I forgot).
It will be interesting to see what happens with South African Rugby, with the announcement that political correct madness has cast its dumb-shit shadow over the selectors, and that teams will be chosen on their racial balance from now on. Considering football is popular amongst Black and people of colour, and Rugby is popular amongst the 10% of the population which are white, let’s hope it doesn’t impact the side.
Hasn’t the country progressed enough in the last thirteen or so years, to require this half-assed effort at token equality..? We saw in the Tri-Nations what happens when a mediocre Springboks side is pitted against Australia and New Zealand.
That might be why Jake White is getting the fuck out of Dodge, or more accurately Dodgy-City.
In all Sincerity, well done the Boks, you are a proud Rugby nation with an excellent team, to of the worlds best wingers (we all know what colour their skin is too), can beat anyone in the world on their day (with any style of play or type of game plan; more than can be said for England), have a fanatically loyal supporting public back home, and ultimately have made a lot of Poms sad, beating them at their own game, and that makes me very, very happy indeed.
Well done Bokke!
And bring on the “Four Nations”, the Argies’ deserve it.
man…i’m so happy. After suffering through the last world cup, i thought the boks would never bounce back. Well done. Whats even greater is the fact that so many are young, and have 1 or 2 cups ahead of them.Please ANC, don’t mix politics and sport let merit dictate who plays for the WORLD CHAMPS! Owen
I promised myself I’d be a good sport, but that only really applies to being a humble winner, and as Australia fucked up Royall I’m glad to sa:
SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKK SSHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTT ENNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGLLLLAAAAAANNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDD!
South Africa, YAAY!
Congrats SA Springboks!!!
Pumas Fan
As an England fan I have to admit that SA were the better team and thoroughly deserved their win last night. England rose to the knock out stages magnificently but this was one step too far. Well done England.
What I don’t understand is comments like those from Coastie. So bitter about being beaten by a so called 10 man England team…. I can only say if we can beat some of the supposedly best teams in the world with only 10 men then that is a reflection of how poor those teams are.
The sniping I hear from some quarters is laughable. Stand up, grow a pair of balls and admit defeat like a man.
Well done to the Bokke. The better team won on the night, no complaints from me.
And Coatsie? Grow up, son.
To coatsie, What a sad bitter looser you are. Congratulations to South Africa you deserved to win. Well done England good tough match.
Cuntsie,
You muppet!
If you think the English are sad – World Champions defending the Cup all the way to the final while beating the ‘Whingeing Wallabies’ and proving you numptees wrong – you really don’t understand what makes us proud, do ya!
You need to accept it – there are no tears today.
We’ll look forward to knocking you out again next time.
Hugs. He he.
schBad luck England. Your team, while limited is a credit to the nation.
And don’t worry about the sledgers> just proving themselves to be morons.
Good one South Africa, you done us again.
Very proud of the English Team regarless of the result.
coatsie …. that England defeat a couple of weeks ago still hurts eh?
Maybe next time round Australia will avoid England and progress a little bit further than the 1/4s
LOL
OK, for a start lets not us crow about this as being a victory of the marvellous open SH rugby. SA stuck to 10-man rugby and did it better. As the column states, that was largely due to Matfield.
Having said that England lost their stare a little and tried to run it too much, as they did in 91. Dumb.
I agree with whoever said that Johnny was shown up. He should look at himself for being outplayed by that James filth merchant.
SA; 2 times RWC holders, but the only side to have played in a final and not scored a try…
BTW, did anyone find the base of the cup?
I thought it was a helluva game. All credit to England who played with so much heart- and were THIS close to scoring a try in the corner. That said, the South African win was no fluke. for the past 5-6 weeks, they showed consistency. People who took note of the Bulls and Sharks in an all South African super 14 final as a good sign before the World Cup were proven right. England has to be going into the 6 Nations with a major increase in confidence that they have not had for the past 3-4 editions of that competition.
I’m English and have nothing but respect for the Boks for their Final game. Like the majority of us Poms. We gave them a good run for their money and didn’t give them the satisfaction of a try – something Sportsfreak reminds us a beaten finalist has never managed to do before.
You seem to forget we got to the Final, coatsie. As Champions. How are people like you managing to give us a taste of our own medicine?
Ah, bless…
Sportsfreak was trying to point out that this is the second time SA have won a RWC final without scoring a try….
“You can keep your awesome runners and your dainty miss-move play; you can keep your jelly forwards, and use them as you may.
“You can keep your decoy channels and weep your bitter tears; and wring your hands in anguish for another four more years.
“You can keep your swagman and your Outback and what’s left of old Matilda; for stoney hearted Englishmen have laid her down and killed her.
“The barbies and the tinnies beckon you to Bondi beach; suck it up, my southern friends… with Paris out of reach.
“Across the boiling Tasman lies another nation strong; with rugby talent, fast and fair, who always get it wrong.
“You can keep your 1st 5/8ths and your ‘unbeatable’ back row; beatable they were, it seems, and so you had to go.
“You can keep your stolen islanders, from Tonga and Fiji; Samoans, too; the ‘Southern Lions’ is how you’re known to me.
“You can keep your lovely mountains and keep your long white clouds; we’ll take the Stade de France, my friends, and the singing of the crowds.
“You mocked us and derided us, and not without just cause; but we have stolen victory straight from the devil’s jaws.
“We may not have beat the Bokke, they’re a stronger team than you; but our nation’s streets are ringing, rugby passion to renew.
“You can keep your all black jerseys and your precious green and gold; for we.. we are England, slow, and ponderous, and old.
“But, boys, we were in the final, the fight for death and glory; to write another chapter in England’s mighty story.”
kinda weird, but full marks for effort
Nice poetry there anon.
But “stolen islanders” ??? Who were they?
here here to coatsie, lets see the argies involved in a quality yearly tournement… Surely it will only be good for the game by ensuring one more truly competitive shows up at future world cups…
I was getting bored of seeing the same teams in the final four at every tournement…
Being an ex-South African living in Australia for several years I know that the Ozzies would first support a pom (former jail wardens)before they say anything positive about us – so well done Boks, you have done all of us expats proud! From Perth to Brisbane we will be shouting your name …!!!!
I don’t know, most of the Aussies who have been writing on the blogs seemed to root for the Boks. To be honest, I am trying to think of ANY team or sport where Aussies would root for England over somebody else…Maybe North Korea…or France.
Nope, I’d back both of them (in fact, did back the Frogs in the Semis)