Bill Leaves on a Sweet Chariot.
Welcome again to the history of the Rugby World Cup from our esteemed Queensland Guest Writer, Mr Damo. Take it away Big D.
In Brief:
When : October 10 to November 22 2003.
The Hosts: Australia & NZ
Winners: Soap Dodgers
Runners Up: Wallabies
Third: Not so Nearlies
Fourth: Frogs
It seems like as we progress through to the next RWC, the memories become a bit more in focus- which I guess stands to reason. Reviewing the relevant videos was a lot of fun and it was great hear the comforting sound of Gordon Bray and ‘Budda’ Handy on the commentary.
October 10 2003. Not far off 20 years ago. Interesting times indeed. We survived Y2K and we all suffered 9/11. In fantasy world Aragon, Legolas and his band of happy Hobbits were battling Sauron and the forces of evil in Middle Earth, while in the real world George W was rampaging through the Middle East, looking for a culprit, or maybe just a scapegoat.
However, on that day we had put all of that to one side. For RWC had returned to our backyard, starting, in front of 80k plus at Stadium Australia, with a very entertaining opening ceremony (Oz had become pretty good at these), followed by a solid if not spectacular 24-8 defeat of Argentina.
Australia won the right to host the 2003 World Cup without the involvement of New Zealand after a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and Rugby World Cup Limited. Australia and New Zealand had been expected to co-host, but their insistence on amending the provisions relating to stadium advertising was unacceptable to the IRB. There was a great deal of teeth gnashing in NZ over that outcome and John O’Neil was widely pilloried for his lobbying to grab sole hosting rights. As a result the pool games in 2003 were spread far and wide, including Townsville, Gosford, Adelaide, Perth and Launceston (yep, Launceston).
The Pool structure had been tweaked after the 99 tournament, reverting to 4 pools, but now with 5 teams in each:
New Zealand, had convincingly won the Tri Nations a few months prior and England had taken out the 6 Nations (Italy’s first foray) grand slam. Both nations were pretty hot property for RWC 2003, in spite of NZ not having home country advantage. 2003 saw the appearance of Dan Carter and Mr McCaw for the first time at an RWC.
England’s presence at the tournament was ominous. If MacQueen had ushered in a professional approach to his 99 winners, then Clive Woodward completed the transition. He had a view that he would bring both his business background as well as his teaching training skills to the squad’s preparation. From all reports it was gruesome and meticulous. He secured budgets to fund specialist defence, fitness, attacking, kicking, scrum & lineout coaches. And a squad was selected that could deliver on this planning. Headed by uncompromising Martin Johnson, England boasted a hyper fit forward pack including Lawrence Dallaglio, Steve Thomson, Neil Back and Richard Hill and a backline led by Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall in midfield and mercurial league convert Jason Robinson on the wing.
So, what of the Wallabies? Eddie Jones (you know him, right?) had been appointed to take the coaching reigns from Rod MacQueen in 2001, following his Brumbies Super 12 win that year. So Eddie had basically 2 years to build a squad that would miss Ealsie, Horan, Tuney & Totai, but still had George and Bernie in the halves, as well as Joe Roff and Burkie and had gained George Smith, Stirling Mortlock, Nathan Sharp and Elton Flatley. Oh, and Eddie decided to go shopping in Loig Land, snapping up Big Dell, Lote and Matty Rogers. The proof of this plan would be in the pudding.
The Pools
There were some big maulings of the lower tier teams throughout the pool rounds. We sat at the northern end of Suncorp and watched the Wallabies clean up Romania 90-8, which they would eclipse with a cricket score (142-0, including 5 tries to Chris Latham) over Namibia at the Adelaide Oval. England also posted a century as they ran over the top of Uruguay
As an aside, earlier in the year for the Tri Nations game v Saffas we had our first taste of the ‘new’ Lang Park. Walking up the stairs at the southern end and looking out over the playing surface was kind of breathtaking for someone who had a few visits there to watch Brisbane league and who ran around there when it was the home of Qld Athletics. It was, and continues to be, one of the great venues to watch rugby.
There however some engaging pool battles. England overcame the Saffas (the team including the likes of Bakkies Botha, big Victor M, Joost at 9, and skipper Corne Krige) 25-6. Australia survived by a point against Ireland (a team including BOD, ROG, Keith Wood and Paul O’Connell) in Melbourne and Ireland just made it across the line to the quarters by a solitary point against the Argies. Wales pushed the All Blacks to the wire in arguably the most entertaining game of the entire tournament, running everything, they led 37–33 with just 20 minutes left, but New Zealand eventually proved too much in the 12-try thriller.
The Knockouts
The quarter final results went pretty much to script. Wales took positives from their performance against the ABs and gave England a real fright.
There is no doubt the Wallabies defeat of the All Blacks in the semi was, like 91, a big upset. The AB’s had clinically dispatched SA in the quarters and were looking very good. There were a bunch of us downing steaks and shiraz at The Regatta Hotel that night (which we could not have afforded back when this was our favoured UQ watering hole). When Carlos slipped a nice cutout pass to Mortlock, the roof almost came off the venerable old pub. In the end it was a bit of a surprise that these two teams could only come up with 2 tries. It has to be said that Australia was moving to the final in good form.
The second semi-final saw France face England. Wilkinson’s boot was the difference between the two sides, with England coming out victors in torrential rain. Although France scored the game’s only they never seriously threatened the English line otherwise. England’s superior forward pressure and territorial control forced France to concede a slew of penalties, of which Wilkinson kicked five, also adding three drop goals.
The Final
Field Goals. 3 points. Our game seems to have weaned itself off this scoring option in recent history. The increase in try points from 4 to 5 may have been partly responsible. Maybe it’s the newfound effectiveness of the rolling maul, or the cross kicks for wingers. However, there is no doubt the drop kick was on the menu in the first five iterations of RWC. Rob Andrew banished the Wallabies with a drop goal in the 95 quarters, and just 2 weeks later Stransky repeated the dose in extra time to take the title. In 1999 De Beer kicked his famous 5 to end England’s run and then it was literally the boot on the other foot with Bernie kicking his one and only FG when it mattered most. And so it was down to Jonny Wilkinson in the 100th minute of the’03 final to drop the ball between the posts and steal rugby’s biggest box of chocolates.
Andre Watson had the whistle for his 2 nd RWC final, and he had plenty to do. It had been a furious battle with both teams throwing the kitchen sink at each other with the 2 back rows tireless. With this pressure there were plenty of mistakes and a few penalties. The scrums were pretty messy. Importantly the Wallabies forwards were matching it with their vaunted opponents.
The only tries in the match were scored in the first half. The first, after just 6 minutes, with Lote outjumping Robinson on the end of a perfectly placed cross kick from Larkham. Then just before half time Robinson scored himself, the result of some silky Wilkinson skills. 14-5 at half time became 14 all at full time. Extra time and it was down to who would blink. Player of the tournament Wilkinson had the composure when it mattered. English supporters at the ground were delirious as Johnny the PM handed the Cup to Johno the lock. Back home the Queen was busy stamping out the gongs the England players would receive and warming up a seat for Clive at the Round Table.
It was described by many as the best of the RWC finals. 2 very smart coaches and 2 well equipped and prepared teams. Also, result notwithstanding, it was a great tournament.
The Highlights
