South Africa beat Wales to romp final with England
Yokohama, Sunday @PeopleDailyKe
South Africa will play England in the Rugby World Cup final after Handre Pollard scored 14 points to steer Rassie Erasmus’ team to a hard-fought 19-16 victory over Wales in Yokohama on Sunday.
Pollard nervelessly kicked the decisive penalty with four minutes to go as the tense game threatened to go to extra time with the scores locked at 16-16.
“We’re in the final of the World Cup… but that’s only halfway there. We’d love to win the World Cup,” said South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus.
“We play a class England team in the final now but we’re there. We’ve got a chance now and we might go all the way. You never know.”
It was a true battle of the boot as the 1995 and 2007 World Cup champions ground out a victory that consigned Wales to their third tournament semi-final defeat after previous losses in 2011 and 1987.
“It wasn’t our day but I’m still proud to pull this jersey on and represent all the people in this stadium,” said Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones, who was close to tears.
The two teams played out a dreadful first half of rugby dominated by a turgid set-piece, crash balls and aerial combat as both sides kicked the leather off the ball.
There was none of the verve shown by England in their gripping 19-7 victory over New Zealand on Saturday, but the slowed rhythm suited the Springboks and their giant pack of forwards, reprising the tactics they also employed in their 26-3 quarter-final victory over Japan.
– Rare spark –
Bok scrum-half Faf de Klerk showed a spark of flamboyance at the very start of the game, darting down the short side from a scrum and chipping ahead, George North just doing enough to cover on the bounce.
But any glimmer of bright, attacking rugby quickly faded amid a first-quarter mired by never-ending scrum resets and poor kicking.
When Justin Tipuric failed to roll away, Pollard stepped up and made no mistake with a simple first penalty, quickly neutralised by Dan Biggar when Willie Le Roux strayed offside, before the Bok fly-half got his second after a Welsh scrum wheeled.
Aerial ping-pong resumed, Wales scrum-half Gareth Davies eventually spilling a ball to hand the Boks advantage, as the first ‘Mexican Wave’ rippled around the stadium on 25 minutes to rival the action on the pitch. -AFP
