The South African national rugby team touched down in Japan some seven weeks ago painfully aware of its flaws as a World Cup pretender. And once the tournament started a few days later, with a humbling defeat to New Zealand, the Springboks knew just how much work stood between them and a shot at the trophy.
But the Rugby World Cup is nothing if not long. Longer than any soccer World Cup and 2.5 times as long as the Summer Olympics, it makes the slog of the baseball postseason feel like a network sitcom. For South Africa, though, that meant this tournament had one huge advantage: It was long enough to make improvements on the fly.
And so on Saturday in Yokohama, a South Africa team that started out the World Cup sloppy at the back and lacking ideas going forward, finished it as the rugby world champion for a third time in its history.
The Springboks ground down England, 32-13, with the kind of focused performance that few in the sport thought them capable of when the squad assembled four months ago.
“We needed to be 20 weeks together to have a chance as we were so far behind the other teams,” South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus said. “We know luck was involved and a lot of people said we would not make it but South Africans never give up.”
Teams from the Southern hemisphere have won eight of the nine Rugby World Cups, but the Springboks weren’t supposed to be the ones to keep the streak alive. That distinction belonged to the New Zealand All Blacks, who had won the previous two editions of the tournament and stomped South Africa in their opener.
Except the All Blacks’ run came to an abrupt end in the semifinals against England, who played a near-perfect game to eliminate them. For all of the flair and grit that England showed last weekend, however—in what was widely regarded as its best performance since winning the 2003 World Cup—the team sputtered against South Africa’s physicality with a flurry of first-half errors.
“In a final everything matters,” England’s Jonny May said. “You can feel the opposition team growing and you coming under more pressure. There were too many times when we were inaccurate in little moments and too many added up.”
By halftime, England trailed 12-6, having already allowed the Springboks’ Handre Pollard to drive home four penalties—much to the chagrin of the England fans who spent much of their evening booing the officials.
After the break, Pollard kicked two more to give South Africa’s hulking defense a commanding lead to protect and leave England panicking.
“We made some personnel changes in the second half and got back into it, but again South Africa were too strong for us,” England coach Eddie Jones said. “We didn’t think that was going to be the case going into the game but that’s how it happened.”
Save for an inspired run by Cheslin Kolbe to guild the result with a late try, it was rarely pretty from the Springboks. They didn’t have the style of the All Blacks or the fluidity of England at its best or even the explosiveness of France in the moments France wasn’t sabotaging itself at this World Cup. But defensively, the Springboks grew into an immovable force.
“From the beginning, we wanted to play rugby that would win a final,” scrum-half Faf de Klerk said. “And tonight we finally got that opportunity and we managed to win.”
With three World Cups, South Africa now joins New Zealand as the sport’s dominant team since the tournament’s inception in 1987. Though the Springboks’ have been less consistent than the permanent All Blacks, there is little arguing with their status now. And as they collected their prize, they delivered a poignant moment when Siya Kolisi became South Africa’s first black captain to lift the cup, 24 years after the Springboks’ first participation postapartheid.
“We have so many problems in our country, a team like this—we come from different backgrounds, different races—and we came together with one goal,” he said. “I really hope we have done that for South Africa, to show that we can pull together if we want to achieve something.”
Write to Joshua Robinson at joshua.robinson@wsj.com
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
"cup" - Google News
November 03, 2019 at 03:43AM
https://ift.tt/2NaQYQv
Springboks Triumph at Rugby World Cup - The Wall Street Journal
"cup" - Google News
https://ift.tt/33Fi2Nf
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment