Rugby World Cup 2023 Final Preview

After a highly entertaining six weeks, the Rugby World Cup 2023 concludes with the Final on Saturday evening between two giants of the game New Zealand and South Africa.

The tournament so far

No one can that these two aforementioned countries are some of the all-time great rugby teams throughout history but, at the same time, not many would have suggested that the final of this particular tournament would have been contested between these two. New Zealand in particular had a rather underwhelming year leading up to the tournament and in fact they suffered their heaviest ever loss at the hands of South Africa in a warm up match just a few weeks before the start of the World Cup. Without a doubt though, this match will be a far tighter one and the winner will certainly have earned their place in history. Both these two teams lead the way in terms of World Cup wins, with three apiece so the winner here will move out on their own with four. The only other nations to win the coveted prize are Australia and England. 

Coming into this tournament, very few would have thought that the final would be held between two southern hemisphere countries as most pundits and experts said this was the time for teams from the northern hemisphere to make their mark. Ireland have been the number one ranked team in the world for some time now and their displays made them one of the favourites to lift the trophy. Unfortunately for them, their old curse struck again and they were unable to make it past the quarter-finals as they lost an epic tie to New Zealand. France, as hosts, were the next most fancied team. They have been impressive for a number of years and they built their team specifically for this tournament. Everything seemed in place for their first tournament win on home soil but they were undone by South Africa, also in the quarter-finals. Ironically, the team that entered this tournament with the most criticism, England, was the only one from Europe to make it into the semi-finals, although they did have an easier route. The likes of Australia, Argentina, Wales and Scotland were only ever given slight chances of success so the real disappointment will be in the French and the Irish camps.

The tournament itself has been a huge success, there is no doubt about that. The French have really shown that they are a rugby-loving nation as every match was pretty much a sell out, whether it involved one of the top teams or one of the lesser ones, including newcomers Chile and teams making their second only appearance such as Uruguay and Portugal. The disappointment when France were eliminated was tangible, but the organisers, fans and everyone involved can be very proud of the tournament as a whole. 

There were not so many surprises in the group stages as the only major nation that was expected to make it through but didn’t was Australia. It was Fiji that beat them to take their place in the last eight but not before they themselves were on the wrong end of a shock result as Portugal won their first ever World Cup match by beating them. England’s comprehensive win over Argentina in the group stage despite playing with fourteen players for 78 minutes was another highlight, as was France’s win over New Zealand in the opening match of the tournament. The best matches of the whole event were the quarter-finals though, four epic clashes that could have gone either way. They were hard-fought battles that were eventually only won by one or two points as England found a way past Fiji, Argentina eventually overpowered Wales, South Africa broke French hearts and New Zealand once again ensured that Ireland’s quarter-final curse lives on. The semi-finals were two very different matches as New Zealand made very easy work of beating Argentina by an eventual score of 44-6 but South Africa had to dig very deep to somehow win an epic battle with England, eventually edging it by a single point thanks to a penalty in the 78th minute. 

The Final

This brings us to our final, between New Zealand and South Africa, to be played on Saturday evening in Paris. New Zealand are favourites going into the match, although not by a big margin. This will partly be down to the fact that they had by far the easier semi-final against Argentina, were able to rest players and have a fully fit squad. The South Africans had by far the tougher matches throughout this six-week period, having to play Scotland, Ireland, France and England on their way to the final whereas New Zealand’s only tough assignments were against France on the opening day and the quarter-final against Ireland. 

Going into this match New Zealand are likely to stick to their first choice team which has generally served them so well in this tournament so far. A big decision will need to be made on whether to choose Sam Whitelock or Brodie Retallick as lock but other than that, the starting team should be the same as the semi-final. Winger Will Jordan goes into this as the top try scorer, with eight so far and he will be hoping to be a threat to South Africa all through the match. South Africa need to make a decision on their fly half as Manie Libbok didn’t have the best of matches against England and was hauled off after thirty minutes. His replacement, Handre Pollard was excellent and kicked the decisive kick to win the match so he certainly made a strong case to start. 

There have been many epic clashes between these two teams with New Zealand just having the edge in recent encounters. They have won five of the last ten meetings and South Africa have won four with one tie, a 16-16 clash in 2019. The last meeting was an impressive 35-7 win for South Africa just before this tournament started but it seems that New Zealand are peaking at the right time and, given their easier set of matches in the tournament so far, are probably justified as being slight favourites. South Africa’s famed substitutes bench might be the deciding factor though, as if they can come on and turn things their way in the second half, as they did against England then they might have enough to upset the odds and win the Webb Ellis trophy, winning back to back championships in the process.