South Africa Win Rugby World Cup

South Africa were crowned World Rugby champions on Saturday after stunning pre-match favourites England 32-12 in the final played at Yokohama Stadium.

The Springboks enjoyed a perfect start, putting pressure on their opponents and their efforts were rewarded in the ninth minute when England captain Owen Farrell was penalised for holding on.

England equalized moments later but South Africa pushed hard and got two penalties from a scrum, which Polland kicked, ending the half at 12-6.

The Boks continued to dominate, after the restart, winning another penalty that Pollard kicked from near halfway.

England then managed a scrum penalty of their own in the 50th minute and Farrell succeeded from 40 metres to cut South Africa’s lead to 15-9.

South Africa then forced England to the backline which earned them another penalty that Pollard kicked in front of the posts, placing Springboks two scores ahead at 18-9.

England on their side struggled to build momentum and were able to grab a lifeline from Farrell’s fourth penalty after Vermeulen held on from the restart.

South Africa placed 14 more points on the board with converted tries by Mapimpi and Kolbe on the left and right wings respectively.

In the 66^th minute, Springboks added another try when Mapimpi broke clear with the ball being easily collected by Kolbe who then blasted through to put the gloss on a deserved win.

After the final whistle South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus stated that he was proud of his charges for winning their third world title.

“There are so many good things in South Africa. We always in the past seemed to look at all the bad things, “, he said.

“We just decided ‘Listen, let’s stand together, and work really hard, play well on the field.’ And all the other things will then from that come out later and that’s what we did.”