Sports After Dark

The only two remaining undefeated teams at Rugby World Cup 2007 meet at Stad de France on Sunday evening with a place against England in the World Cup final at stake. It doesn’t get much bigger than this.

Argentina have been the surprise package of this year’s tournament, turning in their best World Cup performance ever and beating traditional powers France, Ireland and Scotland along the way. They have done it with a simple game plan which they execute flawlessly and they make very few mistakes.

South Africa have performed largely as expected in this World Cup, sweeping aside all comers on their way to the semi finals. Unlike their opponents, the Springboks have not really been tested so far in the tournament after they completely dominated England during their pool fixture in their only game against a top tier team.

This game also features the two top points scorers in the tournament in South Africa’s Percy Montgomery who has 76 points and Argentina’s Felipe Contepomi with 64. Both are very accurate goal kickers and, as England have already shown, goal kicking wins matches at the World Cup.

Argentina come into this game with one of the largest forward packs at the tournament, and they know how to use them. In their opening game against fellow semi finalist France, it was their pack who dominated the more fancied French, creating scoring chances for their backs.

The Springboks have changed very little in the formula which has made them successful; based on dominating in the set piece and letting lose with their electric backline. They will once again look to their forwards to lay the platform for players like Francois Steyn and JP Pietersen to work their magic.

Outside of the forward packs, the other key to this match will be the territorial battle in which both teams are evenly matched. Fly half Juan Hernandez has been a revelation at this tournament, controlling the tempo of the game with his kicks for territory as well as putting up huge attacking bomb for his teammates to chase. South Africa have Butch James, Steyn and Montgomery who are all very capable kickers.

It remains to be seen how Argentina recover from their quarterfinal win over Scotland, with a number of key players only taking part in light training this week in an effort to heal some bumps and bruises.

If Argentina are on their game, it will be a very tight game which will come down to goal kicking or a moment of brilliance from game breakers Bryan Habana or Ignacio Corleto.  If not, then South Africa will be at their merciless best.

But whatever the result, Argentina have shown world rugby that they have finally become a top tier nation by making the final four while more fancied sides such as Australia and New Zealand did not. On form they are capable of winning this tournament, but South Africa will provide them with their sternest test yet.

For South Africa, winning the World Cup has been a four year obsession for coach Jake White and he certainly has the tools to do just that. Only Argentina and England stand in the way of that dream now, and his team will be ready for both opponents, but this has been a World Cup of upsets and another one could easily happen on Sunday night.

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The Could Los Pumas derail White’s dream of another Springbok World Cup triumph? by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.