Thank you Rassie Erasmus, thank you Siya Kolisi and a big thank you to all involved in the Springbok squad.
Our country needed hope and you delivered.
There are times when the game of rugby is just bigger than simply a sports match and what we witnessed on Saturday was bigger than even that.
As victorious captain Kolisi put it after their
historic 32-12 win over England in the final in Japan: “I’ve never seen seen South Africa [united] like this.
“Coach [Erasmus] told us we’re not playing for ourselves today, we are playing for South Africa.
“We love you South Africa, we can achieve anything if we work together as one. We must pull together if we want to achieve something.”
Pull together they did.
LAST TO LEAVE: The Springboks were the first foreign team to arrive in Japan. Captain, Siya Kolisi was recovering from injury at the time. Picture: Christophe Ena/AP.
The first team to arrive at the tournament, the Springboks made sure they were the last to leave and will board their plane back to the motherland with an extra passenger, the
William Webb Ellis trophy.
The first team to lose a pool match and then go on to win the tournament, South Africa entered the match as heavy underdogs against a feared England team that smashed ex-world champions New Zealand in the semifinal the week before.
Their motto for the tournament was 'Stronger Together.'
And the Springboks were powerful in their unity from the first whistle to the last, not only demolishing England’s scrum and defending superbly to keep their opponents tryless, but also displayed an attacking side of their game that was the missing ingredient before the final.
As for England, they perhaps played their final against the Kiwis the week before and failed to keep the same discipline at the Yokohama Stadium on
Saturday.
PENALTY: England's Courtney Lawes' discipline failure gave the Springboks their first penalty kick. Picture: Peter Cziborra/Reuters.
Courtney Lawes was the first to be penalised in the first minute already, when he didn’t roll away.
A nervous Handre Pollard lined up for the first shot at goal, hands shaking and all, and missed.
England were off the hook, but then lost tighthead prop Kyle Sinclair to concussion in the third minute and their plans were derailed a bit.
The Boks, though, kept their fire going and pinned England in their own half, with Duane Vermeulen ultimately earning the Boks their second kickable penalty at the breakdown.
This time, with his nerves settled, Pollard made no mistake (3-0).
NERVOUS: Handre Pollard felt the nerves with his first kick of the final. Picture: Mark Baker/AP.
Despite dominating the first quarter, the Boks failed to build scoreboard pressure against their scrappy opposition.
England then got a kickable penalty when SA wing Cheslin Kolbe played the ball on the ground.
Owen Farrell made no mistake (3-3).
The two teams went at each other hard and the Boks were forced to make early changes when Bongi Mbonambi (concussion) and Lood de Jager (shoulder) left the field because of injury in the 22nd minute.
But in Malcolm Marx and Franco Mostert, they had able replacements.
ARMED AND READY: Bomb squad members were ready to play their role in the cup final. Picture: Issei Kato/Reuters.
Tom Curry knocked on the restart to give the Boks an attacking scrum. And attack they did at the set piece, scrumming England to pieces to earn another penalty (6-3).
Shortly before the half-hour mark England gave their all on the Boks’ line to get a five-pointer. They set up phase after phase, gave the ball to the heavies to barge over, tried to take it wide for someone to sail over the tryline.
But Stronger Together, with Beast Mtawarira, Faf de Klerk and Pieter-Steph du Toit in particular making tackle after tackle - meant the Boks wouldn’t allow them to breach their defence. And England had to settle for a penalty (6-6).
STRONGER TOGETHER: Beast Mtawarira played like a man on a mission to win the World Cup. Picture: Supplied.
South Africa weren’t done for the half and Pollard added two more penalty conversions, one from yet another powerful scrum, to make it 12-6.
Having made 79 tackles to England’s 44 in the first half, with Eben Etzebeth (9) and Frans Malherbe (8) leading the way, South Africa knew their strong defence would give them one hand on the trophy.
In order to get both hands on it, they had to show their killer instinct on attack.
Their scrums were a big weapon and they launched another assault on the English pack five minutes after the break when
Steven Kitshoff and Vincent Koch replaced Mtawarira and Malherbe respectively.
The attack led to a
penalty, which Pollard converted (15-6).
NO MISTAKES: England's Owen Farrell kicks a penalty. Picture: Edgar Su/Reuters.
Then in the 50th minute, England had enough of being bullied at this particular set piece and gave their best front-row shove of the match for England captain Farrell to close the gap to six points
(15-9).
With Farrell missing another shot at goal shortly after that, it was time for Pollard to extend the lead in the 57th minute after England were penalised for being offside (18-9).
That kick was cancelled out immediately from the restart when Marx was penalised for coming in from the side (18-12).
Still within one score, the determined English were in the match with 20 minutes to go.
Then with 14 minutes left to play, the Boks were on the attack and Pollard launched a well-timed high kick across field.
FIRST BOK TRY: Makazole Mapimpi made history. Picture: Issei Kato/Reuters.
Left wing Makazole Mapimpi competed expertly for the high ball to win SA a scrum.
Mapimpi was rewarded for his efforts immediately after the Boks showed some quick hands to get the ball to him.
With little space to work with, he chip-kicked the ball into space and into the hands of Lukhanyo Am, who in turn popped it back to Mapimpi for the first score of the match (25-12).
It was the first time a South African had scored a try in the nation’s three final appearances.
NAIL IN THE COFFIN: Cheslin Kolbe touches down SA's second. Picture: Peter Cziborra/Reuters.
With 14 minutes left, it looked like the World Cup was on its way to South Africa. But they had to make sure of it.
With England on attack six minutes from time, Marx tackled the ball out of the hands of England replacement Henry Slade.
Am was first to it and popped it up for Du Toit, who found right wing Kolbe.
The SA star had 30m to go to the tryline and three Englishmen trying to close down his outside space.
Captain Farrell got closest, but he was side-stepped on the 22m line as Kolbe ran in the try that announced the Springboks as the 2019 world champions.
When the final whistle announced the end of the tournament in Japan, there were tears of joy streaming down the faces of Springbok stars as they left everything out on the pitch to come home with the sport’s biggest prize.