Last night the South African rugby team won the world cup for the fourth time defending their title win from 2019. They are the first team to achieve this away from home which makes it even more special. New Zealand managed this feat, but they defended their title at home which makes it a little easier winning the 2011 and 2015 World Cups.
Over the last 3 weeks they have won the quarter final, semi final and final by a solitary point showing how tough of a campaign it has been. Once they had downed France 29-28 you would have though things would become easier, but raising your game to those standards for two more times would be neigh on impossible. They scraped home against England 16-15 showing the team was taking strain. Last night they beat the All Blacks by 12-11 and no one can say they don't deserve it.
I always expected the final to be closely contested and it delivered swinging one way and then the next. The new player safety laws being enforced were always going to be a concern for both teams with cards being issued with any contact to the head.
Sam Cane the All Black captain can have no complaints with his shoulder charge to the head resulting in a red card. Siya Kolisi the SA captain received a yellow for another high challenge, but was not deemed a red card. Unfortunately the supporters of the opposing team did not see it the same way and he team were not remotely close or comparable
With the players welfare at stake this is a non negotiable topic and one law I have wanted to see in place since 2005. Too many cheap shots were happening and until the officials understand what a cheap shot is it will still be an issue. In last nights final another two shoulder charges or no arms tackles were missed and this is the big issue. Just because there is a trailing straight arm following the shoulder in the hit doesn't mean the intent was there to use the arm to bring down the player and quite the opposite. Still the game is slowly being cleaned up and the IRB must be commended for at least taking these steps in the right direction.
Any team that wins the World Cup and does it the hard way makes it even more special and the SA team should be proud of their on field efforts. This World Cup has been a gripping affair for those in the first two pools with the top 4 ranked teams in the World pitted against themselves resulting in 1 vs 2 in the final. Most World Cups only start to get interesting once the teams hit the knockout stages, but this happened from match 1.
Next year when we see these teams in action again there will be so many changes with players retiring making way for the next generation. Coaches have been sacked (Eddie Jones-Australia). Ian Foster (New Zealand) retiring and Jacques Nienaber (SA) moving back to Ireland. Apparently Erasmus is staying on which means no change for SA as he was the one making the calls and in charge of their strategy.
What is remarkable is that Erasmus and Nienaber took over the reigns back in 2018 when the SA rugby team was ranked number 7 in the world and had hit rock bottom. They installed a 5 year plan due to the knowledge they would be hosting the World Cup in 2023. Who would have thought corruption would have moved the even to France just 12 years after they had hosted the event back in 2007. The plan was already in place and they managed to win 2 World Cups by sticking to their plan. All of this taking place whilst Erasmus was receiving chemotherapy for cancer.