South Africa Win the Rugby World Cup 2007
October 25, 2007 12:08 am Rugby UnionEngland 6 South Africa 15
England were the Reigning Champions and came into this match on the back of four great victories and although they had quite a poor start to the tournament they battled their way through, knocking the Host France out in the process. It just was not England’s night and the Springboks out who were not particularly great in defence, dominated the line outs and Kicked five penalties to secure this great victory and win them the Rugby World Cup 2007.
Jonny Wilkinson was England’s Hero in their 2003 triumph in Sydney, but he was just unable to turn on the magic for England this time and he missed two vital drop goal attempts for England. South Africa were leading England 9-3 at the break and both sides applied pressure and flexed their muscle’s with a series of up and unders, although this did not seem to amount to anything. Percy Montgomery opened the scoring on the 7th minute of the game after Mathew Tait slipped and became isolated in the ruck and England were subsequently penalised for failing to release. Jonny Wilkinson squared the ledger on the 13th minute after Bryan Habana was called for lying on the tackled player, counterpart Paul Sackey. South Africa attacked twice more late in the half but were repelled on the line on both occasions.
England started the second half in great style as Tait cut a swathe through the middle of the South African defence and he set Mark Cueto up for a try, but after a very long deliberation from the TV match official, the wing was ruled to have been in touch when he crossed over in the corner, although some may say his decision was wrong and the try should have been given, this proved to be a turning point in the match from which England just never recovered and South Africa then went on to clinch the Victory.