England

It is difficult to know quite what – if anything – to write on the subject of England’s performance against South Africa in last Saturday’s final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

The first thing to do though – obviously – is to congratulate South Africa on their comprehensive win – an achievement that looked no more than an outside possibility in the earlier stages of the competition, particularly when the All Blacks comprehensively out-thought them in their opening encounter.

The fact was, however, that in the final they really wanted the win with a fervour that England couldn’t match. One might point out that the game had still been close with fifteen minutes remaining on the clock and that the two South African tries came in part because the English were chasing the game and that opportunities arose as a result in the way that they tend to do in such circumstances. That would be an injustice, however, given the way that the Springboks had dominated the English in the set-pieces throughout.

It became apparent very quickly that England were not on this occasion going to match the fluent control that marked their splendid and comprehensive win over the All Blacks a week before. The first handling errors came very quickly – always a sign that a side is subject to a degree of pressure that they have not previously encountered. Given the worlds of difference between semi-final and final performances it almost felt for a moment that we were watching the Scots – who are much more prone to such swings in fortune (and accomplishment) from one week to the next.

No – the key thing at this stage is to congratulate the new world champions, but at the same time to laud the English for the way they set about the competition; for their performances – in particular in seeing off the Australians in the quarter-final and the previously all-conquering All Blacks in the semi-final – and for ending up as very worthy runners-up.

Worth noting also that England are in the main a young side and that they are only going to get better.

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!

“If you can’t take a punch, you should play table tennis”

Pierre Berbizier – former French rugby player 

It is difficult at the moment not to continue with the rugby theme of recent posts. In fact, I promised in my last such that I would make some mention of home nations (UK) other than the Scots – who have themselves now sadly been ‘sent homeward to think again…’

This weekend just passed saw the quarter finals of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. We are now down to the business end of the tournament – having entered the knockout stages.

Of the quarters it must be said that the results pretty much went the way – and in the fashion – that one might have expected… although there is always room in rugby for things to run counter to any presumption.

The English took on Australia. Now – there has been much talk of late about an Aussie renaissance, but frankly the English have had their number for some years now. It was about time that the men in white turned in a truly good performance and they duly did so. There might be some gripes about them having had the run of the ball – getting the lucky breaks and suchlike – but what actually happened was that they very coolly let the Australians throw the ball around and generally run themselves a bit ragged, whilst at the same time exerting the sort of pressure that would inevitably lead to Aussie mistakes. When these occurred they were appropriately taken advantage of with clinical proficiency. The English are starting to look good and are – frankly – the only side that one could imagine mounting a challenge to…

…the All Blacks! Quite a lot has been made of the fact that the much-fancied Irish actually beat them twice in the last couple of seasons. A fair bit was also ignored concerning the recent dip in Irish form that coincided rather unfortunately with the ABs coming on song themselves just in time for the big event. The inevitable happened… The All Blacks blew the Irish away and now look pretty much unstoppable with regard to retaining the trophy for the second consecutive time.

The France/Wales game? Well – this one really did go exactly the way that one might have anticipated. Rising to the big occasion the Welsh played as they had been doing a couple of years back – complete rubbish (slight exaggeration for dramatic effect)! They also contrived to squeak a win with their dying breaths. The French did what only the French can do. They displayed in one moment the mercurial talents that have seen them in the past knock the All Blacks out of this very tournament… the next they looked like total novices – handing the ball to the Welsh for them to canter downfield to the try line. Having built a healthy first half lead there was an inevitability about the way one of their locks – Sébastien Vahaamahina – got himself red-carded shortly after the start of the second half. One might imagine that the French despair – but they probably just shrug their shoulders in that familiar Gallic manner.

We all so wanted Japan to continue their magic carpet ride and to beat the South Africans, but frankly that was never going to happen. The Japanese are nowhere near as diminutive overall as they used to be, but the oxen that the Saffers put out to face them had clearly been chosen purely to accentuate the size advantage. There was nothing very attractive about the Saffer win and they had to work hard to get on top of the ceaselessly energetic Japanese, but in the end they duly squashed them.

How will Wales get on against the Boks? I think I may already know the answer to that one.