Wingers run hot in Boks’ triumph
WINGERS Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe scored South Africa’s first tries in a World Cup final as the Springboks out-gunned England 32-12 to win the trophy for the third time and reassert the supremacy of the southern hemisphere last night.
Superb game management, set-piece dominance, brutal defence and almost flawless place-kicking were enough to see off an England side that had dismantled the double defending champion All Blacks in the semi-finals last week.
Mapimpi has been in prolific form this year, and he showed the South Africans can play a bit with ball in hand too when he finished off a try created by his own chip-through in the 66th minute. Kolbe added the second try eight minutes later, skipping past the tackle of Owen Farrell on the wing and racing away to touch down to the delight of the South Africans in Yokohama’s International Stadium crowd of 70,103. Flyhalf Handre Pollard had already given the South Africans a clear lead from six penalties and he added the two conversions to take his match tally to 22.
While tactics were as traditional as the dark green Springbok shirt, the team was far more representative of a multi-racial nation than those of 1995 and 2007 and Siya Kolisi is the first black captain to lift the Webb Ellis Cup. England coach Eddie Jones, who was in charge of Australia when England won their only World Cup in 2003, becomes the first coach to lose two finals.
Flyhalf Farrell kicked four penalties for England but they were always the chasers. The English suffered a huge blow when prop Kyle Sinckler went off with concussion in the third minute leaving their scrum weakened against the Springbok pack.