Best of RWC #18 - 2015 Classics
2015 The Classics
RWC VIII in England was generally entertaining, a welcome change to the previous events hosted in Europe, and as a result there were some absolute belters of games.
Having already described the upsets, following are recollections of most of the non-upsetting classic matches from September and October in 2015 based on hazy memory, poorly researched facts but 100% accurate opinions.
England 13 v Australia 33
Confirmation that England were not making it to the knock-out stages (remembering they’d lost to Wales in Episode 17) in their very own tournament came at, kind of ironically, Twickers, the ground they rather self-indulgently refer to as "HQ", and from which they selfishly refuse to share any profits from filling. Their refusal to acknowledge that they are not the only national rugby union in the world means there is a touch of antipathy for the men in white. Probably the second most hated team in rugby (they can’t even be best at being hated).
So nobody outside of the south-easternish part of Great Britain shed too many tears as England crashed and burned.
My main memory of this game was Bernard Foley’s second try off the well worked inside ball to and around Kurtley Beale.
Foley hit peak Bernard in this game having had scored another cracker a few minutes earlier.
Watching the YouTube highlights I’m astonished that Owen Farrell was yellow carded for a shoulder charge late in the match. I thought it was illegal to yellow card Farrell.
Matt Giteau wrapped the game up with an extra five-pointer at the death with the game already beyond doubt, just to rub some salt into the England wounds.
As I mentioned in the earlier article, it was kind of a shame that Stuart Lancaster wore this one. He was pretty likeable, and quite successful early in his tenure. (Although the Sam Burgess experiment was not his greatest moment.)
It was a good result in the end though, as "The Rugby Union" ended up appointing Eddie Jones, he of “The Brighton Miracle”, to replace the unsuccessful Lancaster, and the world had an England coach we could all hate again.
Samoa 33 v Scotland 36
Included only because I looked at the score and thought it may be worthy. Looked at the game on YouTube, but failing in the primary qualification for “Classic” status as I can’t remember it at all.
Watch on the web if you’re interested.
New Zealand 62 v France 13 – QF2
For the second time in two World Cups it was a game against the French that settled All Black fans’ nerves. All of a sudden we looked like, err, world beaters … again. Or should that be “still”.
After muddling through pool play and looking less than polished against teams they were expected to raise their bat against, though never in real danger of losing, the less than exceptional scores and scratchy handling had us all worried about what was ailing the team.
As it happened there was nothing wrong. The All Blacks were arrogant/good enough to make it difficult for themselves and test their systems in actual test matches. They played flatter and closer to the opposition than they would against realistic opposition, to see just how good they could be.
Us fans watching at home didn’t know that of course, so we do what All Black fans learned to do between 1987 and 2011 – convince ourselves we weren’t good enough and our World Cup chances were doomed. Doomed!
But they weren’t. Four first half tries secured a solid lead and significant breathing space.
Two of those tries were to left winger Julian Savea enjoying the peak of his form. The first of those a straight run in off a brilliant Dan Carter offload. The second conjured images of Jonah as he bashed through three defenders. Savea added a third from 50m in the second half.
The first try of the day is one of my particular memories of the match: Big Bad Brodie Retallick charging down Freddie Michalack (take that for 2007!) and loping away.
I have a vague recollection that France were not fully out of the match and threatened a come-back-ish at some point around half time. Can’t remember what made me think this, and I don’t have time to watch the full match highlights so I’ll leave that thought there.
But the second half became one-way traffic as the ABs hit 60.
My favourite memory of the game was Joe Moody (who I’ve just discovered has the coolest middle name: Tamateapōkaiwhenua) offloading (back in my day it was called passing in the tackle – nowadays if it is done out of the back of the hand it’s an “offload”) to Tawera Kerr-Barlow for his second, and New Zealand’s ninth, try of the day.
Rewatching the highlights it was interesting the number of tries that were scored off “offloads” in this match: Savea’s first (running off DC), Nehe Milner-Skudder’s (courtesy of Conrad Smith), Kieran Reid (off the other replacement prop Charlie Faumuina), both of TKB’s (double offloads from SBW and Ma’a Nonu)
So New Zealand advanced, with New Zealanders a little more confident, on to what was to become another classic against the old foe, which is reported below.
Australia 35 v Scotland 34 – QF4
For some reason this game reminded me of the 1991 semi-final the Wallabies played against Ireland. It just seemed inevitable that Australia would find a way to get up.
Poor old Craig Joubert. After doing his level best to get France across the line versus New Zealand four years earlier he copped some Wayne Barnes/Bryce Lawrence level flack following his reasonably logical decision at the end of this game. Just as he did in 2011.
But why let facts get in the way of a good narrative?
And why would those same conspiracy theorists think that his non-existent NZ bias translate to a bias towards Australia? But they did ...
Anyway … back to the match in question and the comparison to its 1991 equivalent. No matter how close Scotland kept the score it just seemed inevitable that Australia would win it. It just seemed they would remain in front.
Funnily I just couldn’t see Ozzy losing… but… With a lead of only 25-19 with 23 minutes left on the clock why on earth would Bernard Foley attempt a chip kick out of his own 22?
As a long suffering forward I am firmly of the opinion that chip kicks should be punishable by death. This one however was deservedly punished by five points as Finn Russell charged it down, regathered and had Tommy Seymour dashing to the corner to score.
Australia nudged ahead by eight with fifteen to go, to again look like they had it under control, but Laidlaw pulled three back to keep it within the one try margin.
Then Australia tried to get cute again.
If you are up by only five points in the 76th minute, in your own 22 (again), why on earth try an expansive move revolving around a prop (a prop!) being the primary ball distributor?
Of course, the inevitable happened, the pass goes slightly behind James Slipper who pauses, hesitates slightly and passes it perfectly for Scottish centre Mark Bennett, who was heading the other way at a rate of knots, for Scotland to grab the lead with the resultant conversion.
With Australia trailing 32-34 a scrambled Scottish lineout is knocked back towards their midfield. Unable to control it the ball ricochets back up field into the retreating forwards in front where it is played at by a Scotsman.
Joubert, seeing this, awards a penalty to Australia for offside 30m out on the right hand 15m line.
It was hard to pick up the actual movement of the ball in real time, and on review it seems that the penalty was wrongly awarded. Firstly I’m not convinced that replacement flanker Tim Swinson played at the ball (I’ll have to check the laws but I thought the ball bouncing off you accidentally – it bounced off his back – doesn’t trigger an offside … but I have been wrong before … ), and secondly it appeared that Australian half back Nick Phipps played at and touched the ball as it passed him, putting the replacement prop Jon Welsh onside.
The upshot was Bernard Foley had his Elton Flatley moment and calmly kept his team in the tournament knocking over the three points right on the hooter.
As for Craig Joubert, he unfortunately became 2015’s O’Brien/Barnes/Lawrence, and one of the best referees running around was effectively hounded out of the game.
And Straya moved on to the semi-final against Argentina.
New Zealand 20 v South Africa 18 - SF1
Coaching legend Wayne Smith, in his current post as assistant, made the comment after the match that he was so confident in his team’s defence in the final few minutes, as New Zealand locked the Springboks in the 22, that they could have had the ball for a week and they wouldn’t have broken out.
That was good because the match was a little too close for comfort for much of its duration.
When New Zealand scored early, through Jerome Kaino’s diving effort in the corner, some All Black supporters (ahem) mistakenly thought this could be as comfortable as the quarter-final against the French.
But when South Africa gained a lead at 20mins those same supporters (cough cough) began to realise that the match was no forgone conclusion.
It got worse when Jerome Kaino gave away three points and a numerical advantage with the dumbest of unprofessional fouls right on half time to make it 12-7 to the baddies.
A moment that did give All Black fans the warm fuzzies during the week that followed occurred five minutes after the break when Dan Carter turned some terrible lineout ball into three points with a beautifully taken drop goal to narrow the gap.
What was probably the deciding of the match came at 51 minutes when the All Blacks greatest ever second five-eighth did what Ma’a Nonu did best, mesmerising JP Pietersen into indecisiveness, taking neither the man nor the ball, and replacement winger Beauden Barrett slid over in the left-hand corner for the All Blacks to regain the lead.
The concession of the try was exacerbated for the Bokke by Bryan Habana emulating Kaino’s ill-judged attempt to disrupt the play and having to spend ten minutes in the bin.
A further three points pushed the score out to 20-12, but penalties to Handre Pollard and Pat Lambie brought the score back to 20-18 with twelve minutes left.
But the moment in which legends are made happened bang on 72 minutes. A Springbok lineout 30 metres out on their left-hand touch was just screaming to be taken by the All Blacks’ lineout nemesis Victor Matfield, a giant of South African rugby, driven to a kickable position and a penalty drawn – with the inevitable three points resulting.
But cometh the hour, cometh the man. Sam Whitelock, already an All Black legend, soared high into the Twickenham evening, reaching out a massive left paw and securing possession, from which position was maintained to the end of the match. In a snapshot it was the essence of the greatness of this All Black team, as the trio who facilitated this pilfer reads like a who’s who of 21st Century All Black rugby as Whitelock was lifted by McCaw at the front and Read at the rear.
And the clock ran down.
Ben Franks’s thumping hit on Victor Matfield jarred the ball loose and us All Black fans could relax momentarily – until we realised “we” had to do it all again next week.
As mentioned in passing in part 17, Australia knocked Argentina out in the second semi-final in a reasonably entertaining, but otherwise unremarkable, match to set up the first ever final between the Trans-Tasman rivals.
Only one match remained, which is recounted in the next special Final instalment.