2007

Rugby World Cup 2007 Winners - South Africa

The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth edition of the tournament and it was hosted mainly in France with some matches played in Wales and Scotland, there were four pools with five teams in with the top two from each pool making it through to the last eight of the tournament. Much was expected of the host nation France while as always New Zealand and South Africa were well backed by punters to have a good tournament.

We lost Wales and Ireland in the group stages while all the other main contenders moved into the Quarter-Finals as expected. England destroyed the Australia scrum in their last eight match, it has since been described as 'the mugging in Marseille' and it was a huge game for England who up until that point had struggled during the tournament. In one of the other Quarter-Finals we once again saw favourites New Zealand crack under the pressure and succumb to France while South Africa and Argentina also made progress to the last four.

England continued their remarkable turnaround in form with an excellent win over France in Paris at the Semi-Final stage to reach their second successive Rugby World Cup Final, it was tough to take for the hosts but they were out battled by the better team on the night. Meanwhile as expected it was South Africa who beat Argentina to set up a clash with England in the Final, the Springboks were looking in great form and with flying Bryan Habana on the wing they looked dangerous.

The Final was a tight affair as expected but in the end it was South Africa who came out on top against a tough and battling England team, it was the right result in the end with South Africans proving they were the best team in the world. Credit must be given to England who managed to turd their form around over a matter of days to record some good wins but in the end they just came up a little short.