Four World Cup wins in eight attempts, they must nearly own it by now.
Love them or hate them, that’s quite an amazing achievement from South Africa. When you drill it down just a little, to examine how they’ve done it, the equally amazing statistic is that they’ve scored the very meagre total of two tries in those four finals. They came in Japan 2019, both in the last 15 minutes, when England, having suffered a mauling by the Springboks pack, were out on their feet, the tank empty.
This final was exciting due to the closeness of the score, and the intensity level which was off the scales, but otherwise it didn’t offer much in terms of thrilling rugby. Brutal physicality won the day, just as in 2019. If that’s what seeps down into amateur and schools rugby, the future will be grim. South Africa will now start planning for three in a row, don’t bet against it.
Head-high hits have been an unwelcome feature of the tournament, and there’s still no sign of these abating. The two captains went off for bunker reviews, with Sam Cane’s yellow card upgrade to red being absolutely correct, as was the call to hold Siya Kolisi’s offence at yellow.
But what of New Zealand’s Shannon Frizell? His side-entry into the tackle included pulling Bongi Mbonambi backwards by the neck, before dropping his body on to the hooker’s knee joint. He can consider himself very fortunate that the bunker left things at yellow. This writer saw red.
South Africa claimed that Deon Fourie replaced Mbonambi for tactical reasons, not for the obvious injury, and it really needs to be investigated. The key difference is that a tactically replaced frontrow player can return to play for several reasons, including to prevent uncontested scrums. Whereas an injured player cannot return under any circumstances. An acceptably clever manoeuvre by South Africa, or unacceptably cynical? You decide.
The replacement law was originally intended to ensure that injured players would not mean a reduction in playing numbers. Then, tactical substitutions were allowed. This eventually led to the introduction of the Springboks’ bomb squad, and finally to the 7-1 bench split.
Rugby lasts 80 minutes, but we now have gigantic players who look as if they would be hard pushed to make any meaningful contribution in the last quarter, if required to complete a full stint. Instead, they play about a 60-minute version of the sport, to be replaced by equally huge men, who play even less. Apart from the obvious danger aspect, it is so far removed from what was originally intended that it simply needs to be fixed.
This type of match is a real grind to referee, and presents a much harder challenge than when both teams want to run the ball, playing an expansive game. Wayne Barnes came out of it well, although that is not the view of many New Zealand supporters, including former All Blacks, so nothing new there. Barnes is unlikely to consider a holiday in the land of the long white cloud any time soon.
Yes, there were questionable decisions, for which New Zealand deserves answers. An early kicked penalty for South Africa was a very tight call, it looked wrong, with Barnes explaining that Ardie Savea hadn’t clearly released the tackled player. The All Blacks will want chapter and verse on how a retreating offside Eben Etzebeth avoided yellow for blocking Beauden Barrett’s whipped pass to the short side. South Africa’s defence was looking very thin on the ground, and, on another day, this would have seen Etzebeth binned, and the possibility of a penalty try examined.
Etzebeth is an extremely intelligent player, and, not liking the look of how the All Blacks’ attack was developing just 10 metres out, I’ll bet he took a calculated risk. With only three points from the resultant penalty, and nothing else considered, he’ll see it as job done.
Barnes wisely restrained his tendency to be verbose, but not so Nic Berry in the bronze final between Argentina v England. Berry will need to look seriously at his game management, he was continuously calling for “time off” as water carriers flooded the pitch, and medics carried out running repairs.
He is a very affable guy, but he’ll realise that he overdid it. At one point, he was asking TMO Ben Whitehouse to check a couple of things, and, at the same time, he was “taking questions” from several players. He made life hard for himself, and it’s a difficult enough job without doing that.
England held on to win, 26-23, against a strong Argentine revival. Coach Michael Cheika expressed his deep disappointment at Berry’s performance, and it’s hard to blame him; although the coach did not reference that the pass for Santiago Carreras’s try looked blatantly forward.
There was one last thing to attend to, before everyone headed for home, World Rugby’s annual awards, held in the splendour of the Opéra Garnier. Ireland’s David McHugh scooped the World Rugby referee award. World Rugby’s elite referee manager, Joël Jutge, spoke glowingly of McHugh’s achievements, first as an active referee – three World Cups and two Heineken Cup finals – then, over the last 20 years, as referee coach and mentor.
Both Joy Neville and Nika Amashukeli were generous in their tributes to him. McHugh has certainly “maximised their potential”, which he sees as his role with all up-and-comers. Wise words from an excellent choice for this prestigious award.
