Pollard wins it for Boks against tenacious England

For the second week in a row the Springboks found a way to win when it seemed unlikely as Handre Pollard kicked a long-range penalty three minutes from time to clinch a dramatic 16-15 win over England in their Rugby World Cup semifinal at Stade de France on Saturday night.

It was almost a replay of 2019, when Pollard kicked a clutch penalty to beat Wales and set up a final against England.

This time it was England they beat, and it will be the All Blacks, beaten by England in the semifinal four years ago, who will be the opponents in the decider next weekend.

England went in as underdogs but played the conditions much better than the Boks and were leading 15-6 with 11 minutes to go.

At that point it required something miraculous from the Boks. The miracle was engineered initially by the same weapon that won the 2019 final against these opponents – Ox Nche monstered his opponent in the scrum and the Boks were awarded a penalty.

PINPOINT POLLARD SET UP THE TRY

Pollard was pinpoint in kicking the ball into the corner. From the resultant lineout, replacement flanker Deon Fourie created the space needed by breaking off and taking the ball close to the line.

The Bok big men had the momentum with them and with referee Ben O’Keefe signalling penalty advantage it was one of the biggest and most talented of those big men, RG Snyman, who powered his way over for the score.

Pollard kicked the pressure conversion to make it a two point game and from there it was nail-biting stuff for both the Bok supporters and the England supporters, as the next score would win it.

By then though the Boks, who looked flat and a bit off for the first hour, were starting to gain the ascendancy. And, most importantly, the replacements had engineered the kind of scrumming dominance that could make a difference.

When a scrum was set just inside the England half you could sense what the Boks were setting out to do, and they achieved it. It was at the limit of Pollard’s range, but he didn’t appear to miss a beat as he stepped up to kick it amidst the most unbearable tension.

England had a bit of ball in the last two minutes and as the clock went into the red, but eventually England knocked it on and for the second weekend in succession there was almost a sense of disbelief as much as relief and jubilation as the South African players and fans celebrated.

Let it be said though that if the French felt last week that the Boks had stolen the game from under their noses, this time England had even more right to think that.

LOSERS PLAYED THE PERFECT WET WEATHER GAME

They were given no hope by so many critics beforehand, but when it became apparent that the game would be played in wet weather, so the odds started to level up.

And England did play the perfect wet weather game. South Africa by contrast played like they were unaware the game was being played in the wet and not in the dry conditions of the previous week.

Wet weather calls for simple rugby, an adherence to the basics, but the Boks didn’t do that.

They made a mess of their lineout ball and they were comprehensively beaten in the battle in the air by England, who kicked superbly.

Of course, that is England’s game – they got to the semifinal by playing kicking orientated rugby.

In this game that was the way to go, and for a long time it was almost quite embarrassing how South Africa seemed unable to respond kind with kind.

England played in the Bok half, and the Boks too often tried to run the ball from there rather than do what they needed to do, which was to kick the ball so that play was transferred into England’s half.

All the early momentum was with England, who let it be said that the early 50/50 calls from the referee went against the Boks.

Farrell’s first penalty was kicked in after two and a half minutes to make it 3-0. England led from then until the 77th minute.

It balanced out towards the end, with England missing some too later in the game, but in the early stages the lineout dysfunction prevented the Boks from getting any momentum.

So did England’s excellent defence of the early mauls. The scrums too, until Nche came on, were steady, with South Africa not managing the dominance they achieved in that phase at Yokohama Stadium in the 2019 final.

After 10 minutes England were 6-0 ahead after another Farrell penalty. The Boks got into the England half for a bit after that, but when they were awarded two penalties they kicked into the corner instead of at posts. Both were kickable. In wet weather you go for the three pointers, particularly early in the game.

SA LOOKED FLAT

Of course, had the Boks got their maul working, those decisions would have been vindicated.

But they couldn’t make any headway in the early mauls in the red zone. Credit to England for that. It was also clear how pumped England were. They celebrated stopping the maul as if they had won the game itself.

The Boks by contrast looked a little flat, which was perhaps unsurprising after their massive effort of the previous Sunday, just six days ago.

The Boks eventually did decide to kick for posts, and Manie Libbok made no mistake with what was to be his only attempt of the game. Don’t blame Libbok for this, a wet weather game is just not for him, but it was a good thing that the coaches brought Pollard on after half an hour. Perhaps when they saw the weather, they should have opted to start with him.

The Bok team selected for the game was selected to play attacking rugby, to score long-range tries, but the conditions were never going to allow it. Penalties and three pointers was what it was going to be about, and Farrell kicked two more and Pollard one as England took a 12-6 lead, the exact reverse in fact of the halftime score in Yokohama four years ago, into the break.

FARRELL’S DROP PUT DAYLIGHT BETWEEN THE TEAMS

England were always the better team but they needed to put some daylight on the scoreboard.

In that regard, a key moment in the game was the brilliant long range drop-goal from Farrell that put his team nine points ahead.

It looked like England were going to win when the game went into the last quarter, but the big question was always whether the England forwards would be able to stand up to the Boks for an entire 80 minutes.

In that last quarter the pack, and Pollard, answered the call. And conspired to win a game they never looked like winning to set up an all southern hemisphere final.

It goes without saying the Boks will have to be better next week.

That though is also what we said when the self-same Pollard kicked the penalty that beat Wales in a miserable semifinal in Japan in 2019.

A week later the Boks were a different team. Which they probably will be again next week.

Scores

South Africa 16 – Try: RG Snyman, Conversion: Handre Pollard; Penalties: Handre Pollard 2 and Manie Libbok.

England 15 – Penalties: Owen Farrell 4; Drop-goal: Farrell