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Kicking tourney Springboks; Wallabies boot away chances
Posted: Saturday October 30, 1999 06:27 PM
TWICKENHAM, England (CNN/SI) -- If ever a game proved that you don't need great technique to make a great spectacle, then Saturday's Rugby World Cup semi-final was it. The final four match-up between two of the greatest rugby-playing nations in the world, both former world champions, ought to have produced a technical classic with free-flowing rugby in every department. Instead, and somewhat bizarrely in my view, given the swirling wind and driving rain that engulfed Twickenham Stadium, the match turned into a kicking competition.
It wasn't just Janne de Beer and his Australian counterpart, Matthew Burke, who felt the need put a boot on the ball at every opportunity, besides that's their job. No, it was every man jack of them, as if the ball was a hot potato. No sooner did a flowing move threaten to develop, than somebody opted for the grubber kick or the up and under to at least give the opposition a fighting chance. The result of all this excessive footwork was the kind of rugby that in circumstances other than a World-Cup semifinal, might well have been jeered off the park. Instead however, the crowd just ate it up, as one turnover after another turned what could have been a dour war of attrition into a nervous spectacle that had all of us inside the stadium on our feet.
Of course the final justification of all that wanton kicking came in the match-winning drop goal from Australia's Stephen Larkham, whose speculative effort from fully 49-metres was the first ever drop goal of his senior career. The fact it led to the demise of the world champions creating a perfect irony, as it was a similar drop-goal from Joel Stransky that won South Africa the World Cup back in 1995. Hoist by their own petard then, the South Africans fell to their first ever World Cup defeat after going 10 games unbeaten over the two competitions they've been allowed to enter. As for Australia, well with the help of Matthew Burke's World Cup record-equalling eight penalties, they've now reached their second World Cup final. The Wallabies didn't do it stylishly. They didn't do it prettily. But they did do it...and in the most dramatic way imaginable. So what if it's the first game between these two sides without any tries, it was a great afternoon of entertainment. Terry Baddoo is a co-host of "World Sport," the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
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