The 2007 Rugby World Cup was one of the greatest tournaments the Webb Ellis Cup (Rugby World Cup) had ever seen! Up coming nations, such as Portugal, Namibia, They had a very poor tournament which no one expected. Ireland was looked upon as one of the teams to have a chance of winning the cup! They scraped through two of their pool games by defeating Namibia and Georgia! However they took a beating from France and Argentina.
Quarter-Finals
The teams to get to the quarter-finals were Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Scotland, England, Fiji and France. The quarter-finals kicked off with England v Australia. The obvious favourites were Australia as England suffered through the pool stages. In this amazing twist of event England came out victorious after dominating the play and Andrew Sheridan disrupting the Australian scrum. England didn’t score any tries but Jonny Wilkinson took advantage of penalties and kicked England to the semi-finals with a 12-10 victory over the Wallabies. The next favourite to fall was New Zealand to the hosts, France. Serge Betsen was knocked out in the opening minutes and France went down hill from there with the All Blacks controlling the match. At the interval it looked like an All Black victory with the French trailing at half time 13 points to 3. France then brought on Frederic Michalak and Sebastien Chabal. This caused a devastating affect with a break by Michalak putting Jauzion. Beauxis scored the last 3 points for France from a penalty succoring them the win. Final score was 20-18 to the French. The Fijians rattled the South Africa in the next quarter-final match. Fiji didn’t look strong at the start of the match but as the game went on Fiji leveled the scores at 20 all with 2 try’s in 3mins. The Fijians managed something unbelievable by completing this with only 14 men. It all seemed to be going down hill for the Springboks as Fiji made another assault on the South African line. Fiji’s hope was shortly crushed as South Africa stole the game with two late try’s by Juan Smith and Butch James. The last of the quarter final matches was Argentina v Scotland. Both teams played a similar style of rugby. The Puma’s forward pack gave them the edge over the Scottish. The Argentineans were cruising by the end of the first half with the score at 13-6 and then 19-6 at the hour mark. Scotland staid committed and started to scare Argentina in the last 20mins with an excellent use of the bench by Scotland’s head coach Frank Hadden. Scotland came back to score a converted try to take the end result to 19-13 to the Puma’s, taking them to their first ever semi-final which was to be played against South Africa.
Semi-Finals
England and France were the next nations to clash. England got of to a flying start with a try by Josh Lewsey in the opening two minutes. Jonny Wilkinson didn’t manage the conversion. The French then came back with three penalties taking the score to 9-8. With Jonny not being on form during this world cup the England fans were tense. In the 75th minute England’s prayers were answered as a dangerous tackle on Jason Robinson gave England another penalty which Wilkinson kicked giving England the lead. Then in the 78th minute there had to be a drop goal and who only to supply it then Jonny Wilkinson who once again delivery the goods for England when under pressure. The final score was 14-9 to England taking them to another world cup final.
Who was to face England in the final? This question was to be answered in the next semi between Argentina and South Africa. The Argentines started strong and kicked two penalties taking the score to 18-6 to the South Africans. After both teams kicking up and down the field to each other the Puma’s decided to run that the Springbok line . It was all going well until Du Preez intercepted a pass and sprinted 70m and scoring over the Argentine line, which Percy Montgomery successfully knocking the conversation over. The Puma’s then stole a South African lineout on the Springbok 22, they then spread it wide to score. Felipe Contepomi then added the two points with a conversion. The Argentineans were given hope with the score at 24-13. The Springboks pilled on the pressure with a further four try’s with to from Brian Habana. Montgomery kicked everything leaving the final score at 37-13.
The Runner up match
France was out to prove themselves after losing previously in the opening match to Argentina. The Puma’s were very strong and put in an amazing performance, thrashing France 34-10. This was a big loss for France in front of their home crowd. On the other hand Argentina ended there most successful World Cup with a win. The Puma’s have proved that they are a strong enough nation to play in an international tournament other then the World Cup such as the tri-nations.
The Final
England and South Africa were to play for the cup. This however wasn’t the first time these to teams met. They faced each other in the pool stages with the Springboks thrashing England 37-0. Could this new and improved England make history by being the first nation to retrieve the Webb Ellis Cup? The teams were well matched. However South Africa lead at the interval with 9 points to 6. In the second half Percy Montgomery kicked two more penalties to take there team total to 15-6. England’s 2003 hero, Jonny Wilkinson, wasn’t able to produce the magic this time and missed two drop goals. The Springboks held out to the end and lifted the Rugby World Cup for the second time, last time in 1995.
By James Thompson