Blog: johnloguk

WELL DONE SOUTH AFRICA

It's the morning after, the tears have all dried up, last night's beer is having an unsettling affect on my tummy, but the sun is shining and I'm about to go for a run so it can't be all bad.

South Africa deserved to win their second Rugby World Cup, no doubt about it. They have been the most consistent side all tournament and had the right tactics last night. The pundits will dissect the Cueto "try" that wasn't given for the next few years, but I personally will rue too many penalties given away and Jonny's missed kicks that could have kept the teams closer for longer.

Francois Pienaar, the great South African back row who captained them to their first success in 1995, summed it all up in his pre-match interview. He said that big matches turn on small incidents, the decisions that either go for you or against you. The last ditch tackle that is either made or missed. The kick that scrapes between the posts or goes inches wide. If both teams play to their best, no one makes mistakes, but little things still happen that will turn the game, and so it proved.

South Africa could have gone out at the group stage if Tonga had had a good bounce of the ball in the last minute, but that would have been a travesty to be honest. Joe Worsley's last gasp finger tip tap tackle against France got England through to the final, and we wouldn't have moaned if he had missed it. Indeed, a different bounce of the ball in the first minute against France and Josh Loosey wouldn't have been able to pick up and drive over Damien Traille to score. Little things can mean so much.

The Cueto "try" looked good to me, but then I am very biased. The South African coach said we were "unlucky not to have been awarded a try", but in victory you can afford to be magnanimous. In the days before video replays and TMOs there is no doubt that a try would have been awarded. You see plenty of dodgy tries in old replays with the benefit of hindsight and technology. I suspect that his left toe just clipped the line for a nano-second before he lifted it off the ground, although others think his knee scraped the titanium oxide just before he got the ball down. It doesn't matter, it wasn't given, we can't change it, small things.....

England gave too many early penalties away, and Percy kicked everything put infront of him, despite playing on one leg for half the game. Wilkinson didn't kick well again, either out of hand or off the ground, but his tackling was immense as usual. Has everyone forgotten already that one of Jonny's successful kicks only scraped in off the post? South Africa got to within inches of our line a few times and were only held back by heroic defending, we only got really close the once.

The real deciding area though was the line-out, and Victor Matfield was deservedly man of the match. South Africa managed to anticipate and adjust so quickly that you'd think they knew England's line-out codes. They have set a new benchmark for line-out play, and I suspect that every coach will be studying videos of how they did it. Expect to see more line-outs won against the throw in future.

It was sad to see Jason "Billy Wizz" Robinson limp off again at the end of a great career. How good would he have been had he come over from League a few years earlier? But then we'd have lost some amazing memories from that code. The guy was unique and will be remembered forever. He gave me my funniest rugby memory a few years ago. I can't remember if it was against France or Italy, but Jason made one of his classic jinking run breaks through the heart of the defense. Only the full-back stood infront of him. Jason dropped his shoulder, did a couple of trademark shimmies, the full-back tried to guess where he was going, rocked back on his heels and fell over on his backside. Jason just ran over him to the line. There is a photo somewhere showing the look of bemusement on the full-back's face as Jason approached him, great stuff.

But last night a new England star made a similar break and nearly won us the game. Matthew Tait has flattered to deceive in the last couple of years. Blinding pace, but he couldn't tackle and his judgement was flawed at best. At the World Cup he has developed infront of our eyes. He has added Wilko-like tackling to his pacey game, and his judgement when he had to drop back to full-back was faultless last night. Despite the lack of tries we are starting to look like we have a good young backline at last. Sackey has also added tactical nowse to his obvious pace. Dan Hipkiss always seems to beat the first tackle and is very strong. And remember that we went to France without our best three-quarter when David Strettle was injured in the build up.

Some old warriors will leave the stage now, but hopefully England can build on their successes in France. The 2008 Six-Nations isn't far away and promises to be exciting. The Aussies and All Blacks will come back stronger of course, but will they allow Argentina into the Tri-Nations? They certainly deserve it. It has been a truly great World Cup, huge dramas, great games and personalities, with worthy champions, well done South Africa.

by johnloguk on 12:55 on 21st October 2007