THE DREAM CONTINUES

 

(Image taken from BBC)

Well for the 2nd tournament in a row, England have made the Rugby World Cup semi finals. At this stage in '03 they faced France in the Telstra Stadium. Well Johnny opened the scoring for us with a drop goal before Serge Betson turned the game round with a try converted by Frederic Michalak. Johnny though turned the game back round with two pens before adding two more drop goals and three more pens to take England to the final with a 24-7 win!

Since then, we haven't exactly had the best of records against France. The last time we faced them was in a friendly at the Stade Velodrome and we got outclassed!The best omen we had is that it wasn't that long since we last beat them, that was only in the Six Nations at Twickenham. Still, beating the French outside England is another matter entirely and we hadn't done that since the '03 semi - history was certainly on the side of France.

Still, who cares about history? Not someone who's now seeing England throwing the form book into the mud. This Stade de France semi had the most hype of any rugby match I can remember(apart from maybe the '03 final) on both sides of the Channel! England fielded an unchanged lineup, the only change of note being Robinson being given the captain's armband for his 50th cap. The anthems were suitably loud, Paris was invaded by English fans. Showtime.

Kick off. A slurp of beer, 'flipping hell, is that an England shirt over the French tryline?'. Gomersall had kicked the ball over the French defence and Lewsey had picked it up and flattened a French defender while going over, an amazing start. What followed wasn't so smooth though. France had some solid attacking play and England got caught offside, Lionel Beauxis getting France on the scoreboard with a pen. The game evened out a bit after that with both sides holding firm and cancelling each other out untill England had another messy scrum and Beauxis hit another pen to give France the lead. After that England's play just got messier and this was turning into a French show, England were lucky to be only 6-5 down at half time.

England immediately dodged a bullet at the start of the second half and a side tackle gave the French another penalty which Beauxis kicked over. Finally England got down to business, a surge forward forcing a penalty and Johnny kicked his first points of the night. France still led and looked dangerous at times but England always had enough quality players to cause the French headaches. Only question was, could they lose the messy play and find a way to take the lead? 20 minutes to go, the answer was no. 10 minutes to go, still no, it was just as likely the French would get a try of their own. Five minutes on the clock though and a French defender got desperate enough to high-tackle Robinson. Johnny kicked the pen, and somehow we had the lead! The French steamed in but were unable to turn it round again and then Johnny got himself into a good angle off a scrum and fired in a drop goal. England won 14-9 and I don't think either side could believe it!

Elsewhere, South Africa faced Argentina, also at the Stade de France. South Africa opened the scoring with a Fourie de Preez try converted by Percy Montgomery. Argentina only replied with two Felipe Contepomi penalties, separated by a Montgomery pen before the Sprinbok kicker converted tries from Bryan Habana and Danie Rossow. Manuel Contepomi gave the Argies their first try, converted by his brother Felipe but those were the only points of the second half before Montgomery added two pens before converting a second Habana try. South Arfica won 37-13.

So, the 2007 Rugby World Cup final will be played between England and South Africa at the Stade de France. And anyone who'd seen the hammering that the Boks gave us in the group stages wouldn't have believed that was possible. The Boks have generally retained their standard of play, since then, England have improved theirs significantly. We certainly will not have another blowout in the final. However, beating the Boks will be another matter entirely. Once again I'm not getting my hopes up, but maybe we might do it.

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