South Africa won their record-tying fourth Rugby World Cup on Saturday, thanks in large part to four penalties from Handre Pollard. South Africa edged out New Zealand, which was playing with 14 men, 12-11.
According to jerrymusa.com The contest, played in the rain at the Stade de France, lived up to the reputation of a close, tense finals battle, with the defence winning out and the All Blacks losing their captain, Sam Cane, for a high tackle early on.
Tennis greats Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic were among the 80,065 fans in attendance, and the action didn’t waste any time getting going.
After only two minutes, referee Wayne Barnes ejected Bok hooker Bongi Mbonambi from the field with a damaged right knee after yellow carding All Black flanker Shannon Frizell for an unlawful ruck clearout.
Deon Fourie, a 37-year-old flanker, replaced Mbonambi in the semi-final, and Pollard converted the penalty kick after Mbonambi was cleared of using a racial epithet against England flanker Tom Curry earlier in the week.
After Codie Taylor failed to roll away in a ruck, Pollard, who kicked 22 points in South Africa’s final victory over England four years ago in Japan, fired a second penalty.
As the Boks, spearheaded by the excellent Pieter-Steph du Toit on defence, forced the All Blacks deep inside their own area, they unleashed a barrage of eye-watering blows on each other.
Jordie Barrett kicked for the corner after a late hit by Faf de Klerk on Mark Tele’a, and after a series of drives, the Boks committed an infringement, allowing Richie Mo’unga to score a penalty for the All Blacks.
After Ardie Savea bungled a ruck clearance, Pollard responded with a monstrous 49-yard penalty kick.
Cane was shown a yellow card in the 29th minute for a high tackle on Jesse Kriel, which the television match referee increased to a red card because of the high degree of danger and lack of mitigation. This only added insult to injury for New Zealand.
The All Blacks played with 14 men for 46 minutes after Cane was the first player to be sent off in a World Cup final.
as Pollard’s fourth penalty, New Zealand was under significant pressure again as Du Toit delivered another brutal hit, this time on Will Jordan.
The All Blacks went into the locker room down 12-6 after Mo’unga kicked a second penalty at the 40-minute mark, knowing full well that no team had ever come back from being down at halftime to win a championship.
Then, South Africa missed out on two easy tries.
First, in the opening seconds of the second half, Siya Kolisi botched a clean five-pointer by holding on to the ball as the whitewash neared, despite Cheslin Kolbe rushing up inside and Kriel on the flank.
The Boks dominated possession, and Kurt-Lee Arendse almost made a big play by catching a Kolbe grubber.
When Savea was penalised for a high tackle by Kolisi, the All Blacks came storming back down the pitch, with Mo’unga fumbling the ball after Tele’a took a tremendous up-and-under.
Another All Blacks corner kick resulted in a try after being recycled left to Tele’a, who outpaced three defenders before offloading to Beauden Barrett.
The game was suddenly decided by a single point after Mo’unga’s missed touchline conversion.
As both teams searched for a way to seal the victory, Kolbe attempted an audacious 50-metre drop-goal, the fourth such try by a growingly desperate Bok.
The winger was subsequently cautioned for intentionally blocking an Anton Lienert-Brown pass, resulting in a final roster count of 14 for each team.
As the game neared the last six minutes of intense tension, Jordie Barrett pushed the long-range penalty wide.
Back-to-back victories, South Africa’s fourth overall after wins in 1995, 2007, and 2019, were secured by a late Barrett hit from Du Toit and a De Klerk tap tackle on Dalton Papali’i.