South Africa wins the 2023 Rugby World Cup after defeating France, England, and New Zealand by a single point in each match.
t was Andy Farrell who best summed up the 2023 Rugby World Cup . “Sport can be cruel sometimes – I guess that’s why we love it,” Ireland’s head coach said after his team’s heartbreakingin the quarter-finals. Which is precisely how every All Black squad member felt on Saturday evening as dazzling laser beams, coloured lights and fireworks turned the Stade de France into the planet’s dampest nightclub and South Africa ’s ecstatic players danced their way into Springbok folklore.
Which brings us to the other major theme of the past eight weeks. Every single knockout game was won, statistically, by teams who spent less time with ball in hand than their opponents. South Africa, give or take their lineout issues in the final, made fewer errors when it mattered and, lo and behold, ended up with the trophy. England barely mustered any coherent back play and finished third, losing only to a late Bok penalty.
New Zealand’s departing Ian Foster is not a fan, either – “The game has got a few issues it’s got to sort out” – and Argentina’s Michael Cheika also felt this World Cup was unnecessarily stop-start. “I love rugby more than anything and sometimes I love it and sometimes I hate it because of what I see,” Cheika said, in the wake of the Pumas’. “I think the game is stopped far too much, it needs to flow more. There have been teams here who play great footy. The crowd want to see more of that.
Fair play, though, to South Africa for hanging tough week after week. Do not underestimate the levels of stamina required to win a World Cup. In an era of shrinking attention spans this tournament made War and Peace feel like a digested read. Even writing about it was logistically tougher than almost every previous tournament, a constant blur of TGVs and late‑night dashes for the last metro. Although, in fairness, none of us had Eben Etzebeth charging at us day and night.
Rugby World Cup South Africa Victory All Blacks Triumph
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