Rugby World Cup happened for the first time in the year 1987, where New Zealand became the first champions and France was the runner-up.
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The 2023 Rugby World Cup kicked off last weekend and the tournament is still in the initial stage. Rugby World Cup happened for the first time in the year 1987, where New Zealand became the first champions and France was the runner-up. Since then, the Rugby World Cup has been taking place for every four years and a new country gets a chance to host the tournament each time. Most of the final matches in the World Cup are one-sided, but some of them give chills down your spine till the last second. So here, we have filtered some of the most tensed matches in the history of the Rugby World Cup Finals.
In a match of “grim physical attrition”, New Zealand scored first. From a line-out in the French 22, Tony Woodcock received the ball and broke through a hole in the French defense to score his first try of the World Cup. Piri Weepu, who had already missed a penalty kick, failed with his conversion effort.
Weepu missed another attempt in the 25th minute. Nine minutes later, New Zealand’s Aaron Cruden, the team’s third-choice fly-half, only playing due to injuries to Dan Carter and Colin Slade, hyper-extended his knee, and was replaced by Stephen Donald.
The French came back into the game in the second half, although it did not begin well for them: Dimitri Yachvili missed the team’s first penalty attempt after two minutes, and Stephen Donald pushed New Zealand further into the lead by successfully kicking a penalty two minutes later.
The French reacted straight away: Trinh-Duc made a run toward the line, and after several attempts, Dusautoir scored a try, which Trinh-Duc converted to take the score to 8–7. Trinh-Duc attempted a penalty kick from 48 meters in the 65th minute but missed the goal, and thereafter there were few chances for either side.
The French captain, Dusautoir, who was described as “enjoying a heroic game in defense” by The Daily Telegraph’s Brendan Gallagher, was named man of the match. Another historic milestone occurred when Jean-Marc Doussain came on as a late substitute for France. He became the first player ever to make his Test debut in a Rugby World Cup Final.
The final was the last time that captain Martin Johnson and Back represented England at the international level; both players retired from the team the following year.
The match began before a World Cup record crowd of 82,957 at 20:00 local time with Wilkinson kicking the ball into Australia’s right-hand defense, where it was collected by Nathan Sharpe. At two minutes, Rogers threw to Tuqiri; it threatened to overlap but went into touch. At 20 minutes, England got a penalty kick when Cohen was tackled by Larkham without the ball.
Larkham sustained a lip injury for which he received medical attention, and Giteau was brought in for a blood replacement. Wilkinson scored the penalty from outside the Australia half to put England ahead, 6–5. At 23 minutes, Wilkinson’s long drop-goal attempt with his left foot went wide. Two minutes later, Ben Kay gathered the ball after Richard Hill kicked it through Australia’s defense when Giteau dropped it after a Wilkinson tackle; Kay failed to score a try when he was tackled.
With 90 seconds of regular time remaining, Watson penalized England for collapsing a scrum and Woodman’s failure to engage on their 22-meter (72 ft) line on the right side of the pitch; Woodman felt that Australia engaged too early, but a penalty kick was awarded to Australia. Flatley scored the penalty from 15 m (49 ft) out on the right of the England half with ten seconds left, bringing on extra time with the teams tied.
One minute into extra time, England substituted Vickery for Leonard. Dawson passed the ball to Wilkinson, who could not be stopped by Gregan and scored a right-foot drop goal from 30 m (98 ft) out with 28 seconds left to put England back in the lead.No further points were scored; Watson blew the final whistle, with England winning the match 20–17 for their first Rugby World Cup.
Going into the final, New Zealand had led the tournament in points scored, outscoring their opponents 315–104, while South Africa had outscored their opponents 129–55. The high scoring ‘All Blacks’ had been led by Lomu, who had the record for most tries in a world cup match summary.
No tries were scored but this did not diminish the tense atmosphere and climactic finish. The South Africans played a largely defensive game. Due to the strength of flanker Ruben Kruger and No. 8 Mark Andrews plus scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen, the expansive attacks from New Zealand were repeatedly closed down.
Andrew Mehrtens opened the scoring with a penalty after six minutes to give New Zealand a 3–0 lead. A Joel Stransky penalty put South Africa on the scoreboard after 11 minutes. Mehrtens and Stransky swapped successful penalty kicks. Following a period of pressure, Stransky landed a 32nd-minute drop goal to give South Africa a 9–6 lead at halftime.
The All Blacks leveled the scores at 9–9 with a Mehrtens drop goal after 55 minutes. Though All Blacks fly-half Andrew Mehrtens almost kicked a late drop goal, the score remained unchanged at full time, forcing the game into extra time for the first time in a Rugby World Cup final.
South Africa captured its third Rugby World Cup championship on Saturday, defeating a favored England team, 32-12, and extending the dominance of teams from the Southern Hemisphere in the tournament. The South Africans broke open a tight defensive struggle late in the second half behind tries by Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe. South Africa also won the title in 1995 and 2007; it is the only country to win every Rugby World Cup final it has contested.
The first half was a battle of attrition, with both teams delivering punishing tackles and several players leaving the game early with injuries. But it was the powerful South African forward pack that set the tone, forcing England into several penalties during scrums, which contributed to a 12-6 South Africa lead at halftime on four penalty goals from flyhalf Handré Pollard. The England captain, Owen Farrell, converted two penalty goals for the English.
Six minutes into the second half, South Africa won another penalty at the scrum, and Pollard converted a long-range kick to make it 15-6. But England turned the tables with another kick by Farrell that made it 15-9, and for a moment the English appeared to seize momentum. Kolbe sealed the victory in the 74th minute, getting the ball on the right wing some 40 yards out and dancing around several defenders for the try that put the game out of reach.
Pollard’s conversion produced the final 32-12 score. South Africa became the first team to win the World Cup despite losing a match in the pool stage. The Springboks, as the team is known, were defeated by New Zealand, the two-time defending champion, in their opening game in Japan. England came into the final a strong favorite because of its dominant 19-10 win over New Zealand in the semifinals.
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