WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN THE WORLD CUP*
*BY THE MEN WHO KNOW
When the 2019 tournament kicks off in Tokyo today, it will be the ninth instalment of the global showpiece. To date, New Zealand have claimed rugby’s ultimate prize three times, Australia and South Africa have won it twice each and England became the only northern hemisphere team to triumph when they swept to glory in 2003 under Sir Clive Woodward. So, what does it take to conquer the world — and what is it like to be part of such an epic sporting feat? Here, various champions from over the years provide their insight to CHRIS FOY,
WILL KELLEHER and BRENDAN GALLAGHER…
DAVID KIRK (NEW ZEALAND CAPTAIN, 1987)
‘ World Cup- winning teams almost invariably have a core of really senior players who are prepared to take responsibility on and off the f i eld f or the performance of the team.
‘That can be about taking stock of how a match is unfolding and changing tactics to adapt, or it can be off t he f i el d when something might go wrong and you have to cope with that. Or it might come down to an ability to manage over-confidence. That comes down to the senior players who are influential.
‘Generally, the best team going in has won the tournament, but in 1987 we came from nowhere. It was funny with us because we had a team full of players with very little experience. A lot of great New Zealand players of that era, like Michael Jones, Grant Fox, Sean Fitzpatrick, Wayne Shelford, all emerged at that World Cup, all of a sudden. So, from the first game, I really felt that this was a special team because we played with so much pace and precision, which was a step above everyone else.
‘In the quarter-finals, we faced a very good Scotland team and there was a lot of anxiety about whether we would get through. In the last quarter of that game, we finally got on top, scored a couple of tries and won well. That was when I realised that not only did we have a team with talent, it was also a team who could dig deep, which made me think we could win the World Cup. That’s when I knew we could do it.’
NICK FARR-JONES (AUSTRALIA CAPTAIN, 1991)
‘You’ve got to have the “cattle” to win a World Cup. As Bob Dwyer, my coach, correctly said: “You need five guys who would make it into a World XV, five guys who would be on the edge of that team and five guys who are tried, trusted, proven players”.
‘You also need a good defence to win the World Cup — that’s always been the case. My team in 1991 conceded three tries in the whole tournament; two against Argentina in a pool game and one — against the run of play — against Ireland in the quarter-final. We conceded zero tries against New Zealand and England, in the semi-final and final.
‘When it came to the final, we had beaten England 40-15 earlier that year and that would have been in the back of their minds. They wouldn’t have thought that they would get 60 per cent possession on the day. If they’d known that, they might have played differently, i nstead of setting out to play an expansive game and sticking with that approach.
‘I t hi nk perhaps, f r om a captaincy perspective, a lack of ability to change that gameplan was a fault. Good captains have the ability to quickly change the gameplan if they need to. I’m not being critical of Will (Carling), because we had to defend bloody well, but if they had been more conservative, who knows what might have happened.’
FRANCOIS PIENAAR (SOUTH AFRICA CAPTAIN, 1995)
‘Looking back, 1995 became a story about the new South Africa finding its identity through sport. It was the moment when new South Africa took a long hard look in on itself and President Mandela showed the way towards reconciliation by putting his trust in the Springboks. It was a healing process.
‘To most eyes, we were probably the underdogs going into the final because the All Blacks were in sensational form. But we had the backing of President Mandela, who was wearing the Springboks No6 jersey and came into our dressing room before the game. We felt the whole nation behind us. As we ran on for the anthems, there was an i ncredible roar which seemed to come from all four corners of the country.
‘After the final whistle, when we had won 15-12, I was operating instinctively and sunk to my knees and the whole team gathered around in a tight group to quietly give thanks to God for our victory.
‘A few minutes later I had to do an i nterview, which was also broadcast around the stadium, with SABC’s David van der Sandt.
“Francois, fantastic support from 63,000 South Africans here today?” said David, teeing me up beautifully.
‘ David, we didn’t have the support of 63,000 South Africans today... we had the support of 42 million South Africans.’
JOHN EALES (AUSTRALIA CAPTAIN, 1999)
‘You need to be an athletically gi f t ed t eam with t al ented individuals, but you also need to be a bright team. You’re not going to win a World Cup just by being tougher than everyone else. At times, you need to be smarter than others. That combination of brains and brawn is really important.
‘The other ingredient which is possibly underrated is that you need to be a humble team, with a willingness to learn. If you don’t keep looking for ways to be better — even in the week between the semi-final and the final — then it’s not going to be good enough to just rely on what you did yesterday.
‘ It’s a given that you need experienced campaigners. You need calm heads who won’t panic when things don’t go right.
‘For example, the experience that New Zealand had in 2007 was probably vital in getting them through that scrappy final in 2011. If they didn’t have some core players who’d had the negative 2007 experience, would they have been able to cope with 2011? Probably not.
‘I can’t say I was sure that we would win the World Cup until Owen Finegan scored his try right at the end of the final. There was no moment before then when we thought we’d won it.
‘But there were t i mes when we were proud of how we responded to circumstances — like extra-time in the semi- final. It was a real challenge and the way we handled that was an i mpressive team effort to r e - f ocus a nd respond to the situation.’
PHIL VICKERY ENGLAND PROP, 2003
‘What people forget is that the match didn’t end with Jonny Wilkinson’s drop goal. We had to catch and safely clear the Aussie restart. We were in a state of disarray and confusion and the ball went to my f ellow prop
and old mate Trevor Woodman, who I had been playing with and against since the age of 11 down in Cornwall.
‘Trevor was a great player but this was panic stations, he had never taken a restart in his career. However, great Cornishman that he is, he rose to the occasion, caught the ball perfectly and laid it back without conceding the penalty Australia were desperately looking for. I was so bloody proud of him.
‘And then, on the final whistle, it was that moment when your life flashes in front of you. Winning is everything. Four years later, I actually captained England in a World Cup final but we lost and nobody, and I mean nobody, ever mentions it. And I get that totally. The thing that matters about finals is winning them.
‘In those couple of seconds after the final whistle, I thought of everybody who had helped me on the way, old friends and even people I didn’t know at the time who paid for me to go on England Colts trips, which I couldn’t have afforded otherwise. And all the coaches and players at Gloucester who had helped me and, finally, everybody in the England squad. You will have your own views on how good a rugby team we were or were not, but I do know that England squad and the coaches were the f i nest group of individuals I have ever met. ‘Then, the first thing I did back in the changing room was to phone my mum, El a i n e . Wi t h o u t her support, my career simply wouldn’t have happened. It was her moment as much as mine and I wanted to share it with her.’
BRYAN HABANA SOUTH AFRICA WING, 2007
‘In 2004, Jake White told the team we would win the World Cup in 2007. He came into the role with a pretty meticulous concept of what he wanted to achieve. He did not veer off his path until John Smit lifted the trophy. In 2006, we lost 49-0 to Australia in Brisbane and Jake’s reign was under massive pressure from the union. But come October 20, 2007, the ideology became a reality. ‘You need the bounce of the ball to go your way. I think about Fiji in the quarter-final, when it was 20-all with 20 minutes to go, and that tackle by JP Pietersen on the Fijian lock prevented a try being scored and us going behind. There were small moments in that World Cup that pushed us on to win it.
‘ We went through an emotional roller coaster of insane proportions, so it was a massive relief at the end. We were far away from home, and I don’t think anyone realised what it would be like when we brought the Cup home.
‘It was amazing to witness the power of sport and the reception we received. We went into the townships of the Eastern Cape where youngsters were running behind the bus to get a glimpse of their heroes.Winning the World Cup had a profound impact on us and on a country where sport is needed to bind people together to overcome the intricacies that no other rugby nation in the world has to deal with. It broke down barriers and inspired people.’
RICHIE McCAW NEW ZEALAND CAPTAIN, 2011 & 2015
‘ Experience i s absolutely vital. When it gets tough, it can feel like you have to do something out of the ordinary, which i s when experience counts a lot. All you have to do is execute really well all the things that have made you a good team in the first place. Experience teaches you to hold your nerve i n those situations.
‘You have to be able to put your faith in all the players in your squad, because history shows that you’ll probably need all of them at some point. In 2015, Joe Moody started the final but he had not been in the initial tournament squad. Back in 2011, Stephen Donald and Aaron Cruden weren’t in our initial squad, but they both ended up on the field in the final.
‘ You can’t r each peak performance every week for seven weeks. In the pool stage in 2015, we didn’t really nail the intensity that we needed for the knockout stage. We were just wondering whether it was all going to come right when we came up against France in the quarter-final but, within a minute, I knew it wouldn’t be an issue.
‘Then, in the final, I remember Kieran Read put the first tackle in on Israel Folau and that made a bit of a statement. That’s how it felt to me. It felt like: “Right, here we go, this is how we’re going to be”. I thought to myself: “The boys are on it today”.’
CONRAD SMITH NEW ZEALAND CENTRE, 2011 & 2015
‘We knew going into the 2011 tournament that we’d had a lot of failures at World Cups; not just the loss to France in 2007, but 2003, 1999, 1995, 1991… a whole list of them. New Zealand had not won the World Cup since 1987, so there was a lot of pressure.
‘Despite that, we wanted to engage with the public. In other World Cups we’d tried to hide away, but that wasn’t the way to deal with it. We embraced it, stayed in the middle of the cities, did a lot of public events and really tried to use it in our favour. That was smart.
‘We produced a complete performance to beat Australia i n the semi- f i nal, but the blanket media coverage before the final didn’t help my nerves. In the end, we won 8-7 and it wasn’t our best rugby, but it was about holding our nerve. The winning kick came from Stephen Donald, who had been out white-baiting the week before when he got the call-up.
‘In 2015, we were very average in our pool. We were worried. There were a few meetings when guys were not happy with the planning and coaching. The coaches were holding a few things back and we felt that was affecting our performance — we wanted to show everything. You look back and say: “Oh, it was all part of the masterplan”, but I can promise you it wasn’t. Everyone was stressed out.’