Viggen's Blog

True, you did predict the springboks would take the title, and I also warned you not to write off the chances of the OAP's from England (albeit in a mocking tone!!). After the 36-0 drubbing we received in the group stages everybody wrote us off and even said we'd struggle to make it out of the group!!!! HA!!! Those people under-estimated the strength and determination of the English, our team is packed with quality and experience and with the right boot of Johnny Wilkinson we were always going to be hard to beat.

 

As far as the final goes I think the best team won, you're right in saying the springboks are the kings of the line outs, we just couldn't compete in that department and that's where the game was won,, but if you look at the game on the whole I'd say we were pretty unlucky, we gave away 6 early points through silly mistakes which could and should have been prevented and what about that dis-allowed try from Cueto!! That try should have stood, there was nothing wrong with it! If it had been allowed and the kick converted then it would have been 10-9 to us with 20mins to play, South Africa were on the back foot and we were firing on all cylinders, at that stage of the game there was only going to be one winner, then we lost Mike Catt and Jason Robinson, arguably two of our most influential players and not to mention our skipper not coming out for the second half etc etc etc.

 

But at the end of the day that's rugby and those things happen so I'll just leave it there by congratulating South Africa on winning the World Cup. I'm just glad that after the poor start to the tournament England gave a good account of themselves and rammed the views of press back down their throats!

Hi, Gaius, i appreciate your comments, especially so shortly after the loss...

 

Well, maybe if you would have been a neutral, or a south african observer, you would have thought different of that try, i have seen this incident many times, and only one camera angle actually made it very clear that Cueto touched the line before the ball was over the line and grounded...

 

Of course, if that try would have been awarded things might have been different, but i do believe, because of how the tournament went ( with two games that all of a sudden went close Tonga and Fiji), that when things got closer the South Africans were always able to step up...

 

My (obviously biased) view of the game was that England had to play with 110% and for South Africa it was enough to play with 90%, if things would have gone wrong, there was room for gearing up....

 

In any case, i congratulate especially the english players how they handled the loss after the game, no whining...

 

... i admire rugby player for the general attitude towards loosing and winning!