CUETO: SENT TO
2007 World Cup star warns Underhill his try that got away against the All
SAM UNDERHILL will never forget the try that got away on his last Twickenham appearance – because he won’t be allowed to.
So says Mark Cueto, who still can barely go a day without being reminded of the England score he had disallowed in a World Cup final ELEVEN years ago.
Underhill thought he had inflicted defeat on New Zealand when turning the world’s best player inside out to score from 40 metres.
But one of the greatest finishes seen at the home of English rugby counted for nothing after it was controversially chalked off, turning victory over the world champions into a painful defeat.
The flanker’s moment of magic came when he wrong-footed Beauden Barrett, turning the fly-half one way while he went another.
After the game Underhill shrugged off the disappointment – claiming he had already moved on. Cueto is not so sure.
The former Red Rose winger has still not got over the decision to erase what would have been his greatest career moment in the second half of England’s narrow World Cup final defeat by South Africa in Paris.
To this day he insists his leg did not touch the left touchline during a tackle before he grounded the ball and that the official verdict was wrong.
Based on that experience, and fans not tiring of wanting to talk to him about it, Cueto reckons Underhill’s nearly-moment will stay with him too.
“When it’s a big game, a World Cup final or England against the best team in the world, moments like that which define a win or a loss are rarely forgotten,” said the former Sale star.
“In the last three or four years I’ve probably talked more about that