Rugby World Cup 2007-France
England entered the Rugby World Cup in 2007 in quite possibly their worst ever form. They had just got back from a disastrous tour to South Africa, where they inflicted heavy defeats against us, there was almost no hope for England to get further than the quarter finals.
However, the only solace came from the British bulldog “never-say-die” attitude which everyone hoped they would be able to find to surprise everyone. However, with South Africa, Samoa, Tonga and USA in our group it would be difficult to even get past the Group Stages.
Group Stages
England’s opening game in France was in Lens against the USA Eagles team. Although USA have been improving in leaps and bounds this past few years, the World Champions should have been able to brush them away without much trouble. However, a dogged Eagles team left the already low on confidence English team further in the pits, scraping a 28-10 win. The only player to impress was Barkley, playing in for the then injured Johnny Wilkinson. Also in this match, captain Phil Vickery tripped a USA player when they looked like they may have scored, and was later banned and meant he would miss the vital clash against South Africa.
Next up was the big contest in this Group, South Africa vs. England. Unfortunately for England, RSA were in scintillating form, relegating England to their heaviest ever World Cup defeat, eclipsing their former loss (44-21 to RSA at the same stadium!). The only positives that could be taken from this was that England were able to take 4 scrums against the head. However, Robinson went off in the second half after suffering a hamstring problem was forced off the pitch, and left to a standing ovation from all players and fans after being the only England player to look threatening.
Sitting 4th in the Group table, England needed to win this game against Samoa to stand a chance of getting through. And win they did, 44-22, and this was a much more encouraging performance by England who for the first time this World Cup seemed to be working together. Wilkinson scored 24 points from his boot, with Corry and Sackey claiming two tries each.
England’s last game in the group was against the Pacific Islanders team Tonga. Despite Tonga looking threatening with ball in hand, England managed to put a convincing performance in to beat them 36-20. Perhaps it was the incentive that has they of lost this game, they would have been condemned as the worst reigning World Champions in Rugby World Cup history. This win set them up for a Quarter-final clash against our old enemies, Australia
Knock-out stages
In a delicious rematch of the 2003 World Cup final, England took on Australia in Marseille to see who would progress through to the Semi-Final stages against either France or New Zealand.
England, who had been lauded as the worst World Champions ever, had to a lot to prove against the Wallabies, after as normal their media attacked everything about us. And thankfully, England repeated their heroics of 4 years ago by beating them 12-10. In a closely fought battle, the decisive edge England had was their forward power, to which Australia had no answer for. Despite scoring the only try of the game, Australia were outplayed in the contact area where England forwards dominated and won much fast turnover ball, which let Wilkinson and Catt play the territory game and keep Australia pinned back in their own 22. All of England’s points came from the boot of Wilkinson, who slotted over 4 penalties, but Australia could of won it late on had Stirling Mortlock not missed a last gasp penalty from out wide. This win set up a Semi-final encounter against hosts France, who sensationally knocked out the Pre-Tournament favourites New Zealand.
Semi-Final
Again the under-dogs entering this game, England had nothing to lose after performing so gallantly in the last game to beat Australia. However, they were to face tough opposition in the hosts France, who after losing their opening group encounter against Argentina went on to kick New Zealand out of the tournament, despite being put under immense amounts of pressure.
England made the best possible start when after just 80 seconds winger Josh Lewsey picked up on a moments hesitation by French fullback Damien Traille allowed the on-rushing Lewsey to pick the ball up and bulldoze through the despairing French player to score a try. However, despite that great start England were put under a great deal of pressure and were forced to concede 2 penalties to leave the half time score 5-6 to France.
Coming into the second half, England looked more promising with ball in hand, with Robinson making a spectacular run, jinking his way past 4 defenders, but every time the final pass wasn’t quite there. However, after trading penalties to make it 11-9 with only a few minutes to go, Wilkinson lined up for his trademark drop goal, and coolly slotted it through the posts to make it 14-9 to England. Despite the best efforts by France to get up the pitch, England incredibly won it, and again came from under-dogs to beat the favourites.
This win led England into a second successive World Cup final, this time against South Africa who capitalised on some sloppy work by a tired Argentinean team.
Final
In this final game of the competition, it was the group stages rewritten as England took on South Africa again. Despite being thrashed 36-0 in the Group Stages, England were in bullish mood after two fantastic wins over Australia and France, and were never going to be the same team that walked out 6 weeks ago. However, the new favourites South Africa had looked in excellent form throughout the entire tournament, and hadn’t lost a single game yet. With the leading try scorer Bryan Habana in their backline, along with other top class players like JP Pieterson and the outstanding Percy Montgomery, South Africa hoped to clinch their second trophy in 12 years.
The first half was another close battle, with Wilkinson and Montgomery exchanging penalties, before some sloppy work by the English team gave RSA easy chances on goal. Despite some ferocious attacking by the Springboks, the English defence was up to the task and it was reward of this that they only went in 9-3 down.
Undoubtedly the turning point in the game came in the 43rd minute, when after a scintillating break by Tait he seemed to feed Cueto to score in the corner. However, after an agonising wait, the Australian television match official decided that Cueto’s knee grazed the touch line, and disallowed the try. Despite scoring a penalty a few minutes later, the Springboks were revitalised by this decision and got 2 more penalties to leave it at 15-6. RSA then expertly played England out the game, and played themselves into glory by lifting the Webb Ellis Trophy.
Despite some dogged play by England, overall South Africa deserved the victory, as they had not only looked great with ball in hand in the backs, but their lineout was all dominating, with it gathering everything thrown at it meaning that England never really had a steady enough platform from which they could attack.
So well played South Africa, Rugby World Champions 2007! After this brilliant tournament, everyone is eagerly anticipating the next to be held in New Zealand in 2011.
