England 15 South Africa 16
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and certainly for anyone to find anything beautiful in this second World Cup semi-final between South Africa and England they either had to have a parochial investment or pine for old-school, trench warfare.
Fuelled by the French crowd’s derision of referee Ben O’Keeffe and certain Boks villains arising from the hosts’ quarter-final defeat, admittedly the sense of occasion and jeopardy was on a different plane from the All Blacks’ jaunt the night beforehand, when they voluntarily finished the game with 14 players and thousands were leaving before the full-time whistle.
Here, despite many being drenched by the incessant rain, nobody in the 77,653 attendance – slightly shy of capacity – was remotely inclined to leave prematurely. Nor were either side of a mind to voluntarily finish the game with 14 men, as gradually this contest assumed a kind of ugly beauty and reached an almighty crescendo.
The bench-powered Springboks scrum had dominated an English pack depowered by withdrawing the venerable Joe Marler and Dan Cole. Yet, it still looked that England’s blend of kick-chase, aggressive defending and willingness to fight for every scrap in the air or the ground was going to mug the champions.
The Counter Ruck: the rugby newsletter from The Irish Times
Unbreakable, a cautionary tale about the heavy toll top-level rugby can take
Jacques Nienaber: ‘It was never the case that Rassie and I didn’t enjoy Munster or Ireland’
Joe Schmidt factor makes Australia game special for Ireland and Andy Farrell
The Boks were clearly a little drained emotionally and physically by their exertions against France, making their fewest carries, metres made, line breaks and offloads in this competition, and the second fewest defenders beaten and second slowest average ruck speed.
Looking a little bedraggled and flustered, their Bomb Squad had seemed like more of a panic squad, albeit Ox Nche, RG Snyman and Handre Pollard, were all making an impact.
Then, after a fourth scrum penalty following another transformative introduction of Nche for Steven Kitshoff (not for the first time, the thought occurred that Ulster might have been better investing in the younger man) something significant happened.
Pollard boomed his touch finder from halfway to within five metres of the England line, sparking a huge roar from the Springboks supporters. By comparison, when the Boks turned down a kickable shot at goal in the 15th minute despite already trailing 6-0, Manie Libbok’s kick found touch about 12 metres out.
That must have infuriated an increasingly animated Rassie Erasmus, who sent Felix Jones down to the touchline, whereupon the Boks replacements immediately started warming up.
Libbok did confidently land a 40-metre penalty in the 21st minute but was beaten to a loose pass from Damian Willemse by the outstanding Courtney Lawes in the preamble to Owen Farrell putting England 9-3 ahead.
After slicing a left-footed touch-finder, Libbok was given the shepherd’s hook in the 31st minute, an embarrassing moment for the 26-year-old in the biggest game of his life, and liable to mark the end of his World Cup.
Not that we ever doubted it, but this underlined Erasmus’s ruthless streak, especially when, above all else, it comes to the Springboks winning a huge game. In truth, though, all Pollard did before half-time was kick a close-range penalty, which was cancelled out by Farrell’s fourth.
The game’s first hint of a try came in the 52nd minute when Pollard located Cheslin Kolbe with a perfectly weighted kick pass. From the latter’s chip, Willie le Roux nudged the ball a tad too forcefully over the end-goal line.
Within a minute Farrell’s 45-metre drop goal gave England a nine-point lead and, lord above, a foot in a fifth final. But a crooked throw and a mangled scrum undid two close-range set pieces and that drop goal was their only score of the second half.
Few teams, if any, dig as deep into their well of character and belief as the Springboks, and that Pollard touch-finder changed the mood. Their drive was again confronted by a white wall, but Deon Fourie exploded off the back of it and from the recycle Snyman bounced Jonny May and took Joe Marchant’s tackle to twist around on his back and, with his octopus-like arms and bear-like paws, plant the ball down backhanded.
Pollard landed the conversion and when O’Keeffe adjudged Ellis Genge went to ground as England conceded another scrum penalty, Pollard had no hesitation in pointing to the sticks.
Akin to his 76th-minute match-winning penalty in another semi-final kick-fest against Wales four years ago, despite teeing up a wet greasy ball one metre inside halfway to the right, Pollard had struck his 78th-minute penalty and turned away before it had comfortably cleared the bar midway between the uprights. Cue another MOTM award.
Ferociously though England competed, they played even less rugby than South Africa, kicking the ball 41 times out of hand (93 per cent of their possession). This was the first time in this World Cup that a team didn’t make a single line break in the whole game.
They took regular injury timeouts and had the slowest ruck speed of the entire tournament (6.73 seconds), eclipsing their own ‘record’ against Samoa (6.48). Only four teams have spent less time in the opposition 22 in the tournament.
The game’s ball in play time was 31 minutes, 58 seconds, the lowest of any knock-out match, some 11 and a half minutes less than the other semi-final and almost eight minutes less than the New Zealand-Ireland quarter-final, which had almost twice as many carries and four times as many passes.
The outside backs hardly received a pass between them. The one and only time the ball was passed to the wide channels was in the 80th minute. This was rugby, but not as we’ve known it in this World Cup. More like anti-rugby.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 3 mins: Farrell pen 3-0; 10: Farrell pen 6-0; 21: Libbok pen 6-3; 24: Farrell pen 9-3; 35: Pollard pen 9-6; 39: Farrell pen 12-6; (half-time 12-6); 53: Farrell drop goal 15-6; 69: Snyman try, Pollard con 15-13; 78: Pollard pen 15-16.
ENGLAND: Freddie Steward; Jonny May, Joe Marchant, Manu Tuilagi, Elliot Daly; Owen Farrell (capt), Alex Mitchell; Joe Marler, Jamie George, Dan Cole; Maro Itoje, George Martin; Courtney Lawes, Tom Curry, Ben Earl.
Replacements: Billy Vunipola for Curry (33-39 and 69 mins); Ellis Genge for Marler, Ollie Chessum for Martin, Danny Care for Mitchell (all 52); Kyle Sinckler for Cole (56); Ollie Lawrence for Tuilagi (74 mins); George Ford for May (78). Not used: Theo Dan.
SOUTH AFRICA: Damian Willemse; Kurt-Lee Arendse, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Cheslin Kolbe; Manie Libbok, Cobus Reinach; Steven Kitshoff, Bongi Mbonambi, Frans Malherbe; Eben Etzebeth, Franco Mostert; Siya Kilisi (capt), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Duane Vermeulen.
Replacements: Handre Pollard for Libbok (31 mins); Faf de Klerk for Reinach (43); Willie le Roux for Willemse (44); RG Snyman for Etzebeth (46); Ox Nche for Kitshoff (49); Deon Fourie for Vermuelen, Kwagga Smith for Kolisi (both 51); Vincent Koch for Malherbe (56).
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand).
