Springboks win War of Attrition to secure place in RWC Final

South Africa won what was a war of attrition, completing a 19-16 win over Wales to secure a place in the RWC 2019 Final. The Springboks’ victory sets up a tournament final against England.

The fixture will not go down as a classic and nor a match with a lengthy list of highlights. Instead it was a kicking battle from scrum-half and fly halves for the first hour of play.

In the first half Handré Pollard landed three penalties while Dan Biggar slotted two. The 9-6 scoreline would become 9-9 in the 46th minute with Biggar leveling the scores.

The war of attrition showed little rugby of note being played. Finally a half-break occurred with man-of-the-match Handré Pollard taking the initiative to give South Africa go-forward ball. From the following play Damian de Allende scored.

The try from South Africa not only saw South Africa breaking out of their negative play as the same applied to Wales. The Dragons hit-back in the 65th minute with a try to winger Josh Adams. Leigh Halfpenny landed the conversion to return the scored to all-level.

Into the final ten minutes the game was up for grabs. The differential factor was South Africa’s replacement forwards who were combative to pressure the Western British side and win penalties. Pollard slotted the match winner with four minutes left on the clock before subsequently being camped in the Welsh half to complete the win.

The RWC 2019 Final will be played in Yokohama on Saturday, November 02. In a rematch of the RWC 2007 final England and South Africa will compete for the ultimate prize. The final will be proceeded by New Zealand vs Wales in the Bronze Final in Tokyo on Friday.

 

SCORING

SOUTH AFRICA (19)
Try: de Allende (57′)
Conversion: Pollard (58′)
Penalty: Pollard (15′, 20′, 35′, 76′)

WALES (16)
Try: Adams (65′)
Conversion: Halfpenny (66′)
Penalty: Biggar (18′, 39′, 46′)

TEAMS

SOUTH AFRICA
1 Tendai Mtawarira, 2 Mbongeni Mbonambi, 3 Frans Malherbe, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 5 Lood de Jager, 6 Siya Kolisi (capt.), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 9 Faf de Klerk, 10 Handre Pollard, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 12 Damian de Allende, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 14 S’busiso Nkosi, 15 Willie Le Roux

Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Franco Mostert, 21 Francois Louw, 22 Herschel Jantjies, 23 Frans Steyn

WALES
1 Wyn Jones, 2 Ken Owens, 3 Tomas Francis, 4 Jake Ball, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (capt.), 6 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Justin Tipuric, 8 Ross Moriarty, 9 Gareth Davies, 10 Dan Biggar, 11 Josh Adams, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 13 Jonathan Davies, 14 George North, 15 Leigh Halfpenny

Replacements: 16. Elliot Dee, 17 Rhys Carre, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Adam Beard, 20 Aaron Shingler, 21 Tomos Williams, 22 Rhys Patchell, 23 Owen Watkin