The historic moment of 2003 when Jonny Wilkinson’s drop goal secured their first Rugby World Cup conquest appears a dim and distant memory for England. Since that night in Sydney, the England national rugby team had gone from bad to worse and against South Africa on Friday, England suffered their biggest defeat in 30 matches in the World Cup.
England were left chasing shadows throughout the match as a rampant and ruthlessly efficient South African team thrashed them 36-0 in a Group A match at the Stade de France in Paris. The victory puts the Spingboks in pole position and that should ensure that they don’t meet tournament favourites New Zealand until the final on October 20. This was England’s first World Cup defeat since the 1999 quarter-final loss to South Africa and puts the defending World Cup champions in serious danger of missing the ticket for the knockout stages.
South Africa were 1-8 favourites going into this match and exhibited the reason for being the bookmakers’ choice as early as the 5th minute of the match when JP Pietersen broke down the right flank after a lineout and passed to scrum-half Fourie du Preez, whose offload gave Smith a clear run to the line. From that moment South Africa positioned themselves on the driver’s seat and continued to pile up the pressure and humiliation on England.
South Africa took a 20-0 lead going into half-time and without the suspended captain Phil Vickery and the injured duo of fly-half Jonny Wilkinson and his backup Olly Barkley, England struggled to get inspiration and managed to concede 16 more points in the second half. England lost the match 36-0, failing to score a point for the first time in six World Cups.
England coach Brian Ashton told reporters:
South Africa played the sort of game we wanted to play. They were aggressive, they kicked well and they converted it into the field position we wanted. The game was lost by halftime.
For the Spingboks, Peterson scored two tries while Juan Smith score the other and Percy Montgomery scored 18 points; Fourie du Preez was adjudged the man-of-the-match. South Africa won the World Cup in 1995 and are looking threatening once more.
Image Source: Hackett
Source: Bloomberg
