Rugby Mad Blog

Unlike most of the other World Cup games which I saw at home, I was out at the George in Fleet Street to watch the final. It was crammed to the rafters but I managed to squeeze into a corner to watch the big screen and scream with the rest of them!

After having to play knockout rugby for the preceding 4 games, England did their very best, but the Springboks just seemed to have the edge. Everyone in the pub was convinced Mark Cueto‘s try should have been allowed, but in the cold light of day, and having seen the replay properly, I’m prepared to admit it was the right call.

The South Africans never really got into top gear, with their supposedly secret weapons Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen not getting much ball and therefore never really cutting loose. But I think the Boks had played the better rugby for most of the tournament, so in the end they were worthy winners and the William Webb Ellis trophy [above] will be going home with them.

Jake White will be in charge for one last game, against the Barbarians at Twickenham on 1st December, but then he’ll be looking for a new challenge. Who knows where he’ll end up. The game is rather amusingly being billed as “Socks vs Boks”, from the tradition that Barbarians’ players may wear the black and white hooped jersey, but they always bring their own current team socks with them. It will also be Jason Robinson‘s last ever game, so I’m sure he’ll get a good sendoff from the crowd, whatever the final score.

It started with about five minutes of ping-pong, and just when it looked like the Pumas were making a break, South Africa struck back with an interception and Fourie du Preez [right] sprinted miles to cross for the Boks. Percy Montgomery added the extras and South Africa were 7-0 ahead.

Juan Martín Hernández had a half-hearted attempt at a drop goal at 9 minutes, but it went nowhere. A few minutes later, Juan Smith was judged to have obstructed Agustin Pichot off the ball, and Felipe Contepomi took the points to bring them back to 7-3. But then the Pumas let a pentalty go themselves, and Monty hit back with another three – 10-3.

It was the Boks who infringed again at the breakdown – Felipe Contepomi was unable to add the three points. At the restart, Lucas Borges [left] fumbled the ball horribly and nearly found Bryan Habana over the line with the ball – but Argentina hit back with an attacking run and a lovely kick for touch. The Puma forwards rolled a maul from the lineout, for a good few metres. But the Springboks backed off slightly and the Argentines were pinged for “truck and trailer” moves. Cunning strategy from the Boks?

At 23 minutes, Francois Steyn went for a drop goal from inside his own half, but it just bobbled along the floor into Argentine hands. The next Boks’ lineout was a bit of a mess, with the greens having to mop up at the back. They won the ball, just, but were then caught holding on. A shame that the next Pumas’ lineout was stolen by the South Africans.

At 28 minutes, Argentina won another penalty with the Boks holding on, this time Contepomi made no mistake, and it was 10-6. Despite the scoreline, I think the Argentines have been playing the better rugby in the first half hour.

Habana took a high kick and set off down the wing, but the Pumas’ defence was good, and the Boks were turned over. They made more inroads into the South African 22, but they turned over again, it was slung wide to Habana who chipped ahead, and off he went, ripping up the turf. Montgomery’s kick went plumb through the middle and it was 17-6.

With a minute to go before the break, Argentina fumbled the ball in their own half and it was picked up by Steyn – it went through Jaque Fourie, and Schalk Burger [right] to Danie Rossouw who dived over for a nail-in-coffin try – especially when Percy punted the two points. The Pumas went in with heavy hearts and 24-6 down.

The Pumas needed to keep the error count down in the second half, and not try too hard, just get the basics right. Argentina pushed a huge scrum and knocked the Boks back, and when they moaned about the penalty, ref Steve Walsh made them retreat another 10m! Hernadez’ massive boot kicked the ball deep into Bok territory. They camped down in the South African half for several minutes, Mario Ledesma took it up to 2m in front of the line, then it was spun wide with men over. Manuel Contepomi [left] was the man over the line, and the score was declared good by TMO Spreaders after a bit of deliberation. Brother Felipe Contepomi added the extra points and the Argentines were back in at 24-13.

Soon afterwards, the Pumas knicked a Springbok lineout but knocked on a phase or two later. But the South African scrum collapsed and the Pumas kicked long for territory deep in the SA half. The Boks stole the lineout and cleared, but then fumbled the possession when it came back to them.

At 52 minutes, Argentina won a penalty for offside, and Contepomi was quick to step up for the kick. It banana’d wide, so the score remained static. Argentina had a half opportunity, but then at 62 minutes, Habana took off for the line but had received a forward pass.

The next Argentine scrum was solid. Then Habana was caught offside and the Pumas kicked long for a lineout. It was stolen by the South Africans, who promptly kicked it back into the Pumas’ half. A minute later, Argentina were pinged in the Boks’ half, and Francois Steyn stepped up for a huge penalty – it just didn’t quite have the length.

Then Pichot was offside at the back of the scrum, and Percy Montgomaery lined up the ball, punted it squarely over, taking the score to 27-13. They were done again at 73 minutes, and Monty punished them again, 30-13.

At 74 minutes, Argentina had a scrum deep in South African territory – it was looking good, but then the missile that is Bryan Habana intercepted a wayward pass and ran most of the length of the pitch to dive over between the posts. Monty added two, and the poor old Pumas were done for, 37-13.

There was a bit of argey bargey late on in the game, after Juan Smith was sent to the sinbin for a high tackle. Eventually Steve Walsh calmed things down, but then Contepomi lashed out and was sent to the bin as well.

It’s a great shame the Pumas just didn’t have it in the tank to pull off another win – they have achieved so much during this tournament, and gained an awful lot of respect, both on and off the pitch.

South Africa missed the chance of early points when Percy Montgomery pulled a shot at goal wide of the posts in the 3rd minute. The next penalty was awarded just in the Boks’ half, and this time Francois Steyn stepped up with his huge boot for the first points, 3-0.

The forwards laid the foundations of South Africa’s first try, with a catch and drive manoeuvre from a 5m lineout, which was held up just short of the line. It was recycled and spun out to the wing, where Centre Jaque Fourie was lurking, just dotting the ball down by the corner flag. Montgomery couldn’t convert, but the Boks were 8-0 up.

The Fijian scrum was tested at 20 minutes, but Sisa Koyamaibole picked up at the base, with Mosese Raulini weaving across the field. It looked promising, but the Boks forced a penalty.

The South Africans knocked on in the 22nd minute, and the scrum was won by Fiji. They broke towards the Boks’ line, with several rucks formed by the forwards. A minute later, Fiji had a lineout well into the South African half, but Bakkies Botha [left] pulled down the jumper in the air – first penalty attempt for Seremaia Bai. It sailed through the posts, and Fiji were still in the running at 8-3.

Fiji’s scrum might not be too strong, but their lineout was functioning well. They won another good lineout at 28 minutes, and worked it across the field, but the Springboks snatched it mid-pass. They never made anything of it, and Fiji were able to clear.

The Boks squandered a chance at 32 minutes, when they knocked on right by the line after a huge, crunching, two-on-one tackle from Fiji. But made up for it again when Captain John Smit scored on the right side. Montgomery’s conversion was shocking, nowhere near the posts. So they went in at half time just ten points up, at 13-3.

The first score in the half was vital, and Fiji were making inroads into the Boks’ half. They lost possession, but Bryan Habana slipped, a ruck formed, and the Boks were pinged for holding on. Seremaia Bai slotted it through the posts, no problem. Fiji were back in at 13-6.

Fiji made a great break in the 48th minute, but just knocked on close to the Boks’ line. Francois Steyn intercepted and ran the other way. The Boks worked a lovely try for JP Pietersen, and finally Percy Montgomery struck the conversion. The nail in the Fijian coffin? 20-6 is a long way to come back from. Especially with Seru Rabeni in the sinbin.

No sooner was it thought, than Vilimoni Delasau chipped and chased ahead from well into his own half, and scored! The Boks looked stunned, and even more so when Bai struck a sweet conversion. At 20-13 ahead, it was game on.

At the restart, South Africa were asleep again, and Fiji stole the ball, Mosese Rauluni [left] broke free and passed off to Sireli Bobo [right] for a fantastic try – with the conversion also clean, it was a shocking state for the Boks at 59 minutes – 20-all with Fiji still a man down in the sinbin. Wow!

Twenty minutes to go, and still all to play for. A couple of minutes later, Fiji gave away a penalty, Montgomery took the 3 points to take them ahead again, 23-20. A Springbok knock-on at the restart gave Fiji the scrum feed. They worked it wide, kicked ahead and Francois Steyn picked it up in the Boks’ in-goal area – but was then in trouble with a double tackle from Fiji. Scrum Five to Fiji. They pushed up, Rauluni right up to the line. Then Fiji knocked on.

At 66 minutes, Bai attempted a drop goal as the South African defence was keeping them out – but it went just wide. Fiji were on the attack again in the next minute, JP Pietersen just pushing Ifereimi Rawaqa into touch before he could ground the ball.

At 68 minutes, Fiji threw another crooked lineout, giving South Africa a close range scrum. The forwards drove, and over they rumbled with Juan Smith the last man with the ball. Monty converted to settle the Boks with a 30-20- lead.

Seven minutes to go, Fiji got turned over in their own half, Butch James tried a drop goal, it was too long, but Fiji touched in the air, giving the Boks a 5m scrum. The forwards rumbled on again, and Schalk Burger [right] had a try in the bag, but he dropped it right by the line. He will be kicking himself! Fiji’s 5m scrum was stolen but the Boks knocked on again. Another 5m scrum! There was a massive pileup right on the line. Back to the Boks for a scrum. Another drive for the line, and more argey bargey. Another scrum for South Africa. More driving from Burger at the back, and the front row went up. They drove for the third time, but Fiji’s defence was huge. Eventually it came back on the South African side, and Butch James ran wide and slid over the line. Montgomery added the extras, to take them up to 37-20.

The scoreline belied the truth, Fiji fought right to the end and gave it their all. They’ve been hugely entertaining in all their games. South Africa were really rattled at one point, and lost their shape at the end. Plenty for them to work on for next weeekend.

Everything was going pretty much to form, with the Springboks able to score three converted tries and a penalty, until the 39th minute. Then Todd Clever made a lovely intercept from close to the Eagles’ try line – it passed through Alec Parker and Mike Hercus [left] in midfield before finding the explosive legs of Takudzwa Ngwenya wide on the wing. He ran a one-on-one against Bryan Habana – and outstripped Habana convincingly, to cross for a fantastic try. Hercus converted and the scores stood at 24-10 at the break.

In the second half, and still smarting from being outrun earlier, Bryan Habana was the last man in the line as the ball passed through hands, and crossed over for the Springboks in the 42nd minute.

In the 51st minute, the Eagles turned territory into points when Chris Wyles [right] made it over the whitewash in the left corner. Just as play was getting going again, the two wingers Ngwenga and Habana clashed again – this time accidentally crashing heads as they tried to catch a high ball. Lots of blood in evidence, but they were both patched up OK. Once play was restarted, it wasn’t long before Springbok Scrum Half Fourie du Preez spotted a gap and dotted down just to the left of the posts.

In the 58th minute, the Eagles made another great break upfield, but when the Springboks infringed, the US chose to kick for the corner for a pushover try. Unfortunately, South Africa stole the lineout and cleared with a massive kick towards the centre line. The Eagles lost the next lineout too, and the Boks gained more ground. South Africa were able to score another four converted tries, two for Centre Jaque Fourie.

Around 68 minutes, the States put another great passage of play together, and worked their way up into the Boks’ half, but they botched the scrum and the Boks cleared. The Eagles worked it back up field, from side to side. There was some lovely passing, moving the ball quickly, but couldn’t put together another score.

It was a great shame the scoreline ended as it did (64-15) – the Eagles played much better than the scoreboard would suggest. But in the end, the Springboks’ class told it’s tale, and the boys in green scored nine tries, only one of which they failed to convert.

With two wins under their belts already, Tonga were up for their clash with South Africa and played a fantastic game, nearly giving the Springboks a fright.

First blood went to the South Sea Islanders with Fly Half Pierre Hola slotting a penalty in the 9th minute; his South African counterpart Andre Pretorious missed two attempts at the posts. The Springboks passing was a bit sloppy, and the Tongan defence held firm until the 17th minute, when Ruan Pienaar snuck over the line after a quick tap and go penalty. Pretorious finally found the posts with the conversion. The score was 7-3 at half time, much tighter than most commentators would have guessed before the game.

There were no more points until the 44th minute, although both sides had opportuniities in the meantime. Tonga’s Kisi Pulu scored, driven over the line, and Hola converted, to take the Tongans into the lead 10-7!

Springbok coach Jake White brought on 5 heavies from the replacements bench at this point – damage limitation in mind. Pretorious missed another penalty chance at 47 minutes – his fourth wayward attempt. A couple of minutes later, Danie Rossouw [left] took a very heavy hit from the Tongan defence. Play stopped and he was stretchered off the field in a neck brace. Let’s hope the medical team were just being cautious.

The Tongans were caught offside a few minutes later, and this time Francois Steyn took the penalty and added 3 points. Then the floodgates opened and the Boks scored three tries in seven minutes. Juan Smit was the first to score at the end of a move which saw the South Africans run the whole length of the field. Next up was veteran Bobby Skinstad, making a record-breaking 90th appearance for the Springboks. The third was by Pienaar, taking the score to 27-10. Not exactly runaway, but the Boks thought they had done enough.

Tonga were having none of it, and still faught valiantly. Around 70 minutes, they managed two scores in two minutes, and kept pushing the South African defence. They came within a whisker of scoring again right at the end, but for a bad bounce which saw the ball go into touch.

The game finished up at 30-25 to South Africa, but it was a great fight all the way, and one of the most exciting of the tournament so far. Tonga are England’s last opponents in the pool stage next weekend, and they will underestimate them at their peril!

Just when England fans thought it couldn’t get any worse, South Africa gave the red rose boys a lesson in how to play the game. Ten minutes in and Englad were 10 points down. Then Matt Stevens gave away another penalty and the Boks made it 13-0. Three drop goal attempts by the South Africans went wide, but with two minutes to half time, J P Pietersen crossed the line for the first of his two tries. Percy Montgomery added the extras and England were staring down the barrell of a 20-0 gun at the break.

Andy Gomarsall was brought on in place of Perry as the second half started, and he marshalled the forwards but didin’t make a significant difference. At 45 minutes, Montgomery kicked another penalty to take his tally beyond 800 points for the Springboks.

Like the last game, Jason Robinson [left] was one of the brighter sparks in the team, time after time he chased the high kicks and got some possession, only for it to be squandered later by a wayward pass or fumble by other players. It was really sad to see him pull up with a possible Achilles injury at 58 minutes. It would be a great shame for his rugby career to end there and then, but it was great to see the ovation he got from England and South African fans alike as he hobbled off the field. Let’s hope the news isn’t as bad as it seemed.

The other worry was Jamie Noon being stretchered off the field with one minute to go – God knows we don’t need any more injury worries.

As for the rest of the game, it was a depressing one way street, and 36-0 was the worst defeat ever suffered by England during a World Cup. I thought Fourie du Preez [right] had a great game at Scrum Half, but generally, England were out-thought and out-muscled in all areas of their game.

There’s a hell of a long way to go if England are to even contemplate beating Samoa next weekend. It’s a depressing time to wear the white jersey…

England Shake Off Their Monkey
The 7-defeats-in-a-row streak is over, with a 23-21 win against South Africa. OK, it wasn’t pretty. But a win’s a win. Two players suffered injuries and were taken off – Charlie Hodgson was replaced by Andy Goode before half time, and Andy Sheridan suffered a leg injury, when Phil Vickery was brought on. With a couple of minutes to go, the prop scored his second, and probably most important, international try. Here’s a photo from the England/SA game I attended in 2004:

Other International News
The Welsh steamrollered through Canada, winning 61-26 at the Milennium Stadium on Friday evening. I love the optimism of Ric Suggitt, Canada’s Coach, who claims “We will beat Wales at the World Cup”. OK…

Wales should head into their clash against the All Blacks next weekend with bags of confidence.

And Argentina made it two in a row with a 16-23 victory against Italy at the Stadio Flaminio. Quite a turnaround as the South Americans were trailing 9-3 at half time. Surely, this win (and last week’s) proves that Argentina deserve a crack at bigger competitions – either the Six Nations or Tri-Nations. There’s certainly debate to that effect at the BBC Sport Editor’s blog. And I agree. Whilst there, I also stumbled across a really interesting piece about the role of the 4th TMO, especially with regards to Noon’s try which was disallowed against New Zealand. Food for thought!

Sarries Win On The Road
Northampton were beaten 13-35 at home by a firing Saracens team.

The Men In Black scored five times. Glen Jackson landed all his conversions, Andy Farrell scored his first Premiership try, and Neil de Kock crossed the whitewash again for his third try in a month. This gives Sarries another bonus point which will hopefully see them rise up the table, if not this weekend, then it may well be a vital point later in the season.

I wasn’t at the match, but here’s a picture of Northampton’s Carlos Spencer, playing in the rain-soaked game against Bath from September last year. See more images from that game at rugbypix.com

Other Premiership News
Sale played a real turkey at home on Friday night, losing 18-26 to Newcastle. Philippe Saint-Andre has apologised to the fans for such a poor performance:

“It’s the worst performance at home since I’ve been here. We couldn’t catch the ball, we couldn’t pass the ball twice and we dropped the ball. It was terrible. We made too many mistakes.”

Quins saw Worcester off 20-6 at home. Poor old Worcester have now lost 8 in a row, and are camped securely in the relegation zone. Quins know all about that, of course, as they spent last season in National Division 1.

Floating Up The Table
Saracens kept up a good home record at the weekend by beating Leicester Tigers 22-16, in a fast, exciting game.

Sarries attacked right from kickoff and kept up the pressure throughout the game. Admittedly, the Tigers were without some of their regulary guys who away on international duties, but they still put up a good fight.

[right, Tom Varndell gets some unwelcome attention from Richard Haughton]

See more of my photos from this game at rugbypix.com. Sarries are now 6th in the Premiership table, the highest they have been placed since about this time last year. Let’s hope they can remain bouyant!

That Sinking Feeling?
Heading the other way, there is much talk of Andy Robinson‘s position in light of the recent loss against Argentina. Seems he has a stay of execution until after the South Africa games are done. Messers Guscott & Healey would have him go now. They make some compelling arguments, in my view.

Let’s face it, if the squad chosen for the first SA game doesn’t deliver the goods, I reckon Robbo’s in a pretty untenable position. And we haven’t got much time to stop the rot before the World Cup now! The Sprinboks will be fired up after their defeat last weekend, and if England do go down, it would be there worst run of results, ever. Not a good thing to have on your coaching CV, Mr Robinson…

Argentina have pulled off the win of their lives and beaten England 18-25 at Twickenham, their first win at the ground. It was only a matter of time, really, as they have been getting stronger as a team for a while now.

I didn’t watch the game, and have only read reviews of it, but it sounds like England were their own worst enemies. They just can’t seem to fire as a unit. BBC Sport gives the England player ratings.

Corry says the players are to blame, and Robinson’s vowed not to quit. But what will it take for the team to pull their socks up?

I suppose one face-saving fact is that we didn’t get the thumping from the All Blacks last week that France endured this weekend… They went down 3-47 in Paris, only managing one drop goal to the AB’s seven tries. Merde encoure!

Meanwhile, Ireland beat the Springboks 32-15, so South Africa will be coming to Twickenham next weekend, looking to put some points on the board with even more determination.

Let’s hope the pain doesn’t continue… not sure if I can watch!