RWC 2019 Final: Ruthless Springboks crush England’s dream

South Africa defeat England 32-12 on a terrible night for Eddie Jones and England

2019 Rugby World Cup final, Yokohama, Japan – 2nd November, 2019

South Africa 32: Tries: Mapimpi, Kolbe, Cons: Pollard (2), Pens: Pollard (6)

England 12: Pens: Farrell (4)

Bashed, smashed and thrashed. Out-muscled, over-powered and, sadly for England, totally one-sided. South Africa bestride the rugby world once more, after demolishing England 32-12 in Saturday’s final to win their third Rugby World Cup.

What a difference a week makes, the high optimism for England’s chances after their stunning semi-final win over the All Blacks evaporating by the minute once this bruising final got under way. They simply had no answer to a fired-up, focused and brutally efficient Springbok team. Make no mistake, this was a tonking of this highest order, and England can have no complaints.

Right from the kick-off, this didn’t look like a good day at the office for England. In only the second minute, they lost prop Kyle Sinckler for the rest of the match, an unfortunate coming together of Sinckler’s head and his team mate Maro Itoje’s elbow knocked Sinckler cold, requiring a good deal of on-field attention from medical staff before he was allowed to walk slowly off. Thankfully there appeared to be no lasting damage.

On came Dan Cole to replace Sinckler, and sadly for the Leicester veteran, it turned into a match to forget. Cole, along with the rest of his pack, got absolutely monstered in the scrum by South Africa, conceding five penalties in total from a set-piece that looked like men against boys. Whatever combination of props South Africa fielded during the match, they were always in command of the front row battle. Our old friend “The Beast”, Tendai Mtawarira, was particularly outstanding.

Early penalties were exchanged in a match that was already looking like an arm-wrestle rather than anything more aesthetic, which suited South Africa perfectly. The Springbok fly-half Handre Pollard missed his first penalty, but made no mistake with the next one, courtesy of Owen Farrell holding on following a loose pass from Mako Vunipola, on nine minutes.

Farrell levelled things up after South Africa were caught offside on 20 minutes, swiftly followed by the first of those deadly scrum penalties, with Bok prop Tendai Mtawarira forcing Dan Cole horribly upwards. 6-3 to South Africa.

On 33 minutes, England finally managed to keep ball in hand and put some phases together – over 20 of them –  laying siege to the South African line. Amazingly, the Boks’ defence held strong and all England come away with was a Farrell penalty to make it 6-6. It felt like the tiniest of rewards when it looked for all the world that a try was there for the taking, and it was becoming increasingly obvious England were looking second best and needed every point.

In the last five minutes of the half, South Africa added two more penalties from Pollard, one earned by Duane Vermeulen at the breakdown, and another from the dreaded scrum. England were probably relieved to go in for half-time at only 12-6 down. It had been a chastening 40 minutes of rugby, littered with errors from them.

Scrum-half Ben Youngs throwing a pass straight into touch, fly-half George Ford kicking out on the full, and little or no territory being gained. Passes were looking horribly rushed, players were getting caught out of position, and the body language looked poor. South Africa looked massively confident. They were playing the school bully to perfection, and England’s dinner money was long since stuffed gleefully into the Springbok blazer pocket.

It couldn’t get worse for England, could it? Er…yes it could. In the first five minutes of the second half, penalties were exchanged – another from England’s wretched scrum for Pollard to nail, and – amazingly – one for England from a Springbok scrum transgression that Farrell despatched: 15-9.

Then on 52 minutes, perhaps England’s last chance to gain a foothold (in fact they would have settled for just a toehold at this point), and get within striking distance of the Springboks was spurned. Owen Farrell kicked deep and Pollard attempted to gather but lost his footing. As he recovered he was pressurised by Anthony Watson, and Tom Curry won a crucial penalty. Kick it, and it’s 15-12 –  and maybe, just maybe, a chance for England to get themselves back into it. But Farrell missed and it stayed at 15-9.

Even worse, just two minutes later, Cole is pinged for collapsing a maul, Pollard steers it over and it’s now 18-9. Although England managed to win another penalty following Manu Tuilagi’s tackle on Vermeulen to take it to 18-12, it feels like it’s one step forward and three back for England, who are still desperately trying to find some rhythm and control from somewhere.

But it’s simply not happening for them and South Africa finally conjure their first try of the tournament in the 66^th minute. They win possession down the blindside and wing Makazole Mapimpi chips through. His kick bounces perfectly for centre Lukhanyo Am, and he passes perfectly to Mapimpi to fly through to score. A TMO check for a forward pass earlier in the move is survived, and it’s 25-12.

England weren’t even in the last chance saloon – they’d been thrown out of it by the South African pack and were lying in the dirt licking their wounds.

With the game effectively over, the Springboks were enjoying themselves and put a final lick of gloss on their victory with another try, courtesy of wing Cheslin Kolbe. Game well and truly over. England were humbled and conclusively beaten.

For Head Coach Eddie Jones and England, this clearly hurt massively. For the neutral, it may not have been the most artistic of matches – the Springbok muscularity and power game would not have been to everyone’s taste.

But the bigger picture is of course the deeper one of South Africa’s troubled political history, and the problems that sadly remain throughout their country. Sporting successes obviously cannot solve all those issues, but we all know how inspirational and uplifting such events can be to the population.

So to see South Africa’s first ever black captain, Siya Kolisi, lift the Webb Ellis trophy on behalf of his team and his nation, was quite something in the wider context of this tournament. His story of achievement from such a tough and unpromising start to life – plus his genuine humility at the end of the game and during the subsequent celebrations – is truly inspiring and transcends the minutiae of the actual game.

For South Africa, it was a glorious finale to a tournament few would probably have expected them to win. Having said that, we shouldn’t forget they won the 2019 Rugby Championship back in August.

For Jones and England, this was a bitter end to a tournament they had navigated superbly up this point. Despite hopes to the contrary, perhaps the achievement in beating the All Blacks so well had subconsciously affected them?

Post-match, Jones had no answer as to what had just happened and why England lost so badly. Now that some dust has settled, one assumes that feeling has now changed after a debriefing process with his players that needs to provide answers that will be crucial to the regrouping of this squad, and how they respond going forward.

Will Jones stay on? Australia are known to be casting admiring glances his way now that their own Head Coach Michael Chieka has departed. But Jones is (handsomely) contracted to 2021 and he clearly has – despite this defeat – some hugely talented players at his disposal.

The problem is, the next world cup isn’t until 2023 and that probably seems a lifetime away for Jones right now, having just lost a final so comprehensively.

We shall see. For England fans, there will always be the feeling that this was the World Cup we could have won, being the culmination of Jones’s four-year plan, which he nailed firmly to the mast when making it very clear it was his one and only priority when he became Head Coach.

Last Saturday, it looked so close to being won…this Saturday it looked as far away as it was four years ago, prior to Jones’s arrival. There are several ways to win a rugby match. Against New Zealand England found a near-perfect open, expansive, free-running way and it was glorious to behold. Against South Africa, it seemed like they were ill-prepared for their opponents’ methodology (though goodness knows why), and worse, had no clue how to match or counteract it.

The very best teams have the ability to adapt, and that looked sadly missing from England in this final. But then again, there was a state of readiness and passion that South Africa had in abundance, and England, for whatever reason, didn’t.

Japan have been great hosts for a tournament that’s generated a lot of entertainment, and praised by many nations for its excellent organisation. Hopefully it’s been a step forward for some of the smaller nations, although that is often hard to gauge, and until they can be accommodated into global tournaments to give them more top-level experience, that issue will be ongoing.

Meanwhile, Jones and England are clearly close, but not quite close enough yet, to achieving their ultimate goal…and that will hurt them badly for a long time to come.

By Chris Tribe

4th November 2019

Copyright © 2019 Chris Tribe. All Rights Reserved.

Photo credit: Copyright © Author: Carrington & Co, London (trophy, based on the cup and cover by Paul de Lamerie) / Roman.b (derivative work) / Wikipedia Commons