ENGLAND HAND BOKS WORLD CUP

 

(Image taken from BBC)

So, for the 2nd tournament in a row, England made it to the Rugby World Cup final. Last time round we faced Australia at the Telstra stadium. A Lote Tuquiri try opened the scoring for the Aussies only for Johnny to kick three pens to turn the game round and Robinson to add in a try. Elton Flatley then kicked three penalties for the Aussies to force the game into extra time at 14-14. In extra time, Wilkinson kicked a pen and Flatley replied, till in the last seconds came that drop goal from Johnny, England won 20-17! Neither England nor anyone else have ever defended the Rugby World Cup, the tournament having started in 1987!

This time round we faced South Africa and we didn't exactly have the best of records against them coming into the final. For starters, they'd already beaten us once in the World Cup, in a Pool A match at the Stade de France. The last time we beat them was still that freak victory at Twickenham last year. If we were looking for good World Cup omens then yes there was still that 25-6 Pool C win back in '03 at the Subaico Oval but that era was over.

The '07 England team had no right to make the final given how the tournament had started but now the country was finally behind them with a load of white shirts getting on the Eurostar to head to the Stade de France. Josh Lewsey got himself injured before the match but Matthew Tait looked like he'd fiill in the gap pretty smoothly. The hype was always going to be insane, nothing could be taken for granted. It was time to finish an unreal tournament.

Well things didn't start well with the Boks winning the first two lineouts without contest which left England resorting to a kicking game and Tait getting isolated allowed Percy Montgomery to pen the scoring for the Boks through a penalty. However the kicking game eventually paid off when the Boks had to kill the ball and Johnny levelled the game with a pen of his own. A slightly-too-mad kick from Moody allowed the Boks to regain the lead through another Montgomery pen though. England got their act together enough to stem any further attacks but the Boks defence looked hard to crack as well. The Boks always had the edge at the lineout though and England killing the ball allowed Montgomery another pen. South Africa led 9-3 at half time.

England had a brilliant start to the second half with Tait scorching four Bok defenders on his way to grabbing what should have been a try but for some unknown reason the moron of a ref sent it upstairs and the video ref refused to give it. Johnny still got a pen but that was still four points lost due to no fault of our own. Montgomery got another pen after another forced error from England though. England improved their play afterwards but conceded a penalty with Kay preventing a tackle and Francois Steyn got his name on the scoresheet. From there on in the Boks never looked like cracking and as the clock ticked down, England pretty much gave up. South Africa won 15-6.

Going down a level, France and Argentina were in the third place playoff at the Stade de France. Jean Baptiste Ellisalde opened the scoring with a penalty for France only for Felipe Contempomi to draw level with a pen of his own before converting tries from both himself and Omar Hassan Jalil. Martin Araburu and Ignacio Corletto got two more tries for the Argies before Clement Pointrenau got a try for France converted by Lionel Beauxis. However the Argies had the last word when Contempomi converted his second try, Argentina won 37-10.

So, South Africa are the 2007 Rugby World Cup winners, winning the trophy for the first time since 1995. It's not exactly a major shock, the Boks were one of the two tournament favourites from the start and went through the competition unbeaten. England were the only side to have kept Bryan Habana in particular quiet throughout the entire tournament which says a lot about England's defence but it also saysa a lot about the sort of players the Boks came to the tournament with, congratulations to them.

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