Springbok brawn breaks Welsh hearts in semis
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A HUSH. A dull thud. Brief silence. A roar. That was the sound of South Africa reaching its third Rugby World Cup final yesterday. It was also the sound of Welsh hearts breaking.
When Handre Pollard fired over his 76th-minute penalty to nose the Springboks three points ahead, the die was cast.
They had been the stronger, bigger, harder men throughout the 19-16 win in Yokohama. It is with no small irony that the South Africans are known as Springboks 鈥 a medium-sized antelope.
鈥淥ur forwards were great tonight,鈥 Pollard said. 鈥淭hey got us momentum, they got us a bit of front-foot and they got us penalties. In tight matches, that鈥檚 what it鈥檚 about.鈥
The South African game plan was obvious. Coach Rassie Erasmus had loaded his bench with six forwards and only two backs. 鈥淎s you can see, the coach doesn鈥檛 hide it,鈥 captain Siya Kolisi said. 鈥淗e goes straight for the six-two split because we want our forwards to take out everything ... and the guys we bring on, you know you have got nothing to worry about 鈥 when you go off, the other guy is going to come on and bring it even more.鈥
But while the giants of the veldt certainly laid the foundations of this victory, it was one of their smallest men, Faf de Klerk, 1.72 meters tall in his green-and-gold socks, who orchestrated it with smart box kicking, probing, darting runs and tough tackling when needed.
Where de Klerk ran the show, Pollard was the dead-eyed marksman, his 14 points decisive. Already South Africa鈥檚 leading points scorer at World Cups, he moved up to 140 with yesterday鈥檚 kicking masterclass.
This match was always going to be won by the boot. Even the rugby purist might have been tempted to reach for the television remote, as the first half was more rugby pinball than anything else.
The contrast between this contest and Saturday night鈥檚 breathtaking England win over New Zealand could not have been more stark.
But this, too, was rugby.
鈥淚t was a tough physical match,鈥 Welsh coach Warren Gatland said. 鈥淚 take my hat off to them ... it was a real arm wrestle, a really tough encounter.鈥
Wales had beaten South Africa in their last four meetings but never at a World Cup. The Boks overall record over Wales had stood at 28-6, with one match drawn. That was the more telling statistic.
The Boks got on the board first with a 15th-minute Pollard penalty, and, to a point, that was key. It meant that the Welsh were forced to play catch-up throughout with their increasingly tired minds and beaten-up bodies.
When center Damian De Allende brushed off Dan Biggar to crash over the line, it had looked like the end for Wales. But the Welsh are nothing if not durable, and found a way to stay in touch, with winger Josh Adams plunging over eight minute later.
But for a third demoralizing time, the Welsh were found wanting after reaching the last four. In 1987 the All Blacks put paid to their hopes, and in 2011 it was the French, by a single point.
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