England were outplayed and out-coached

South AfrICA are deserved world champions after their performance on Saturday in Yokohama. they knew they had to play differently from the semi-final, they knew they couldn’t do to England what they had done to Wales.

And it started straight from the get-go as they played more rugby in the first five minutes of the final than they did in the whole of the semi-final. their approach completely spooked England and Eddie Jones’ side never recovered.

All the talk going in to the final was about England and how well they had played in the semi-final destruction of the All Blacks, which had made them red-hot favourites, but they were out-played in just about every aspect of the game. South Africa did to England what England had done to New Zealand a week earlier but this time the scoreline reflected the dominance.

England were unlucky to lose Kyle Sinckler so early as he has very quickly become a key player in their team. his ability to pass and offload is incredible which gives England a different dimension in their attack. he made more passes (eight) in the 46 minutes he played against the All Blacks than the entire South African pack did in the whole match last week.

It also meant that Dan Cole had to play for 78 minutes, something he hasn’t done for a long while and England were completely dominated at scrum time. they got on the wrong side of referee Jerome Garces early on and conceded three penalties at scrum time in the first half which was huge psychologically.

the Springboks love a good scrum and this part of the game gave them a huge lift while demoralising England at the same time.

South Africa’s intensity in defence completely nullified England’s attack and George ford and owen farrell had no answer to the very physical questions being asked by the Springboks. Again, it was very similar to what England did last week in stopping the All Blacks’ cutting edge out wide with Manu tuilagi brilliant in stopping the wider channel.

for tuilagi read Lukhanyo Am this week and he was brilliant. he could have scored the first try but he passed it to Makazole Mapimpi and was outstanding throughout. You want magic moments to remember in the biggest games and Cheslin

Kolbe did that with a sublime finish that put the icing on the South African cake. It was a remarkable performance, maybe the best from any team in the history of World Cup finals, and they are deserved champions.

South Africa were my pretournament favourites, although this changed with their performances as the World Cup progressed, as well as the performances of New Zealand and England. But the Springboks proved that tournament rugby is all about peaking at the right time. England peaked at the semi-final, South Africa saved their best until it was needed the most and, in doing so, are the first team to win the World Cup after losing a group match.

England will be devastated and there will be questions as to why they couldn’t replicate the intensity of the semi-final. the result and performance will haunt them. You don’t mind so much if you lose when playing somewhere near your best but England were outplayed and out-coached.

South Africa did their homework and executed it almost perfectly. England did not and the inquest will focus on that.

there is no doubt this result will have a huge effect in the country of South Africa. Siya Kolisi is more than just the South African captain — he is a symbol of hope for millions in that country as the first black captain of a team that used to symbolise the segregation that once existed in that country. Some things are more important than sport and this could be as important as when Nelson Mandela presented the World Cup wearing a Springbok shirt in 1995.

the rugby World Cup 2019 was just brilliant to be a part of. Japan staged an incredible tournament with the country showing such enthusiasm and remarkable positivity, even in the face of real adversity, when the super typhoon hit the country with devastating results.

their team continued the positivity with topping their group and pushing the eventual winners quite close in the quarter-finals. It was a calculated risk taking the World Cup to Asia for the first time but it has been a huge success and could change the face of the global game going forward.

this cannot be the end of this journey for Japan and the likes of fiji, and there must be a place found for them in an annual rugby competition to keep the momentum going.

for the moment, thank you Japan. You have been incredible.