The Springboks are back to back Rugby World Cup champions after edging home 12-11 in an epic and tense final at Stade France against an All Black team that very nearly did what their opponents did in the previous play-off games by finding a way to win out of adversity.
It was another game that wouldn’t have been good for Bok supporters with dickey hearts, with the game on a knife-edge for the duration of the second half. Earlier, it didn’t look like it would be that close.
When New Zealand was reduced to 14 men in the first half because of one of those really horrible red cards, with the All Black captain Sam Cane the man who was banished in the 33rd minute initially for a yellow card that was then upgraded to a red by the bunker, you wouldn’t have given them a chance of making it close.
BONGI WAS A BLOW THAT STYMIED SA
The Boks had already suffered the kind of blow they really didn’t need early in the game, when Bongi Mbonambi, the one man other than Faf de Klerk who the Boks didn’t need to leave the field, had his knee ligament twisted early in the game due to a neck roll from Shannon Frizell that go the All Black flanker into the naughty chair for 10 minutes.
Deon Fourie certainly stepped up to the plate in general play, but he wouldn’t have expected to be playing hooker for over 75 minutes of the game. So there was lineout dysfunction that was inevitable, but the Boks managed to raise themselves above that and for the rest of the half they were in control of the game. They were doing the opposite of last week by winning the kicking game and dominated the early territory, and when Handre Pollard kicked the penalty awarded for the Cane indiscretion, the Boks went ahead 12-3.
Just as was the case when England were ahead
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