Final notice

Well – here we are – the end is in sight… with regard to the 2019 Rugby World Cup anyway! This Saturday coming sees a repeat (in terms of the combatants) of the 2007 final in Paris between England and the Springboks.

The semi-finals turned out broadly in line with the suggestions that I advanced in my last post on the subject.

England proved that they did after all have too much for the All Blacks on this occasion. Indeed they made the Kiwis look quite ordinary for considerable portions of the match in a manner that one rarely sees. As the second half wore on it became all too clear that the All Blacks did not know how to break England down. One side effect of this powerful and sparkling performance is that England have subsequently been made somewhat unexpected favourites to take the crown… which may not altogether suit them.

My prediction for the other semi-final – between Wales and South Africa – was that it would be a dour affair in which each team would attempt to out-muscle the other. The match would go down to the wire and one side would win at the last gasp by three points. The only thing that I got wrong was that I thought Wales would sneak it, whereas in fact the Saffers did so.

Back in the early stages of the pool section of the tournament the All Blacks convincingly beat the Springboks. They did so by patiently absorbing all of the South African pressure and waiting for the chinks to appear in their armour. When these duly did so the All Blacks scored two rapid tries in a five minute period and killed the contest stone dead.

England will doubtless try – and should be able – to do something similar. There is a bit of a history now of teams winning heroically against the odds in World Cup semis (usually against the All Blacks) and then having nothing left for the final. Eddie Jones – the England coach – has had experience of this before, not least in 2003 when he managed Australia to the one World Cup final that England have (to date) actually won. I am going to assume that – armed with that experience – he will know how to keep English noses pressed to the grindstone for long enough for them to be triumphant.

Incidentally, back in 2007 England were not expected to do well in the tournament. The Girl and I had booked ourselves a cheeky Autumn break in the Algarve which just happened to coincide with the final. When England got through – against all odds – we had to scurry around the town in which we were staying looking for somewhere to watch the match. Fortunately one of the restaurants in the main square was smart enough to have arranged screens overlooking their outside tables. We were thus able to watch England losing to the Springboks (and we still maintain that that Mark Cueto try was good!) while enjoying a decent al fresco dinner on a balmy Mediterranean evening.

Anyway – go England for this Saturday!