The All Blacks’ advance to a second successive World Cup final appearance was feted in New Zealand on Sunday, but local media fretted that a stray elbow could rule talismanic captain Richie McCaw out of the title-decider.
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Other images shown later made it look as though Louw was hit by McCaw’s hip. He returned later with a bandage on his head and finished the game.
“He (McCaw) is a man that draws a lot of attention because he’s been a great player, maybe the greatest player in the history of the game”.
The Springboks were winning the aerial battle.
“I take it personally and there are one or two calls I will reflect on but it’s been a huge honour to serve my country”. Any worries? New Zealand have yet to win a final on the road.
“You can fall into the trap, and I potentially fell into that trap in Cardiff against (pool opponents) Georgia”. It was just a bit uncomfortable for anybody who was watching it.
Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer said it would be hard to lift his team emotionally after the letdown against New Zealand, with not a lot really at stake.
“It’s mentally very, very tough because it doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s like kissing your sister”, he said.
The master fly-half kicked 10 points and set up the second-half try that took New Zealand to a 20-18 victory over the Springboks in the semi-final at Twickenham on Saturday.
“No-one in that second half was waiting back”.
Facing Carter, now in the twilight of his career, was the Springboks’ rising fly-half Handre Pollard who punished the All Blacks for their ill-discipline with five penalties.
With his points haul from the match, Carter became the first non-England player to pass 100 points at Twickenham.
NZ Captain Richie McCaw (right) consoles Francois Louw of South Africa (Photo: foxsports).
With the All Blacks down 12-7 at half-time, and Jerome Kaino in the sin-bin, Carter snapped a neat field goal to start an All Blacks revival.
But New Zealand held on in the rain. They might lean on Kieran Read to clean up his act in mauls, and Aaron Smith at scrum-half to regain a sharpness he lacked this time.
Carter kicked the conversion and exchanged further penalties with Pollard. Though Kaino got a try, New Zealand’s indiscipline left them 9-7 down after 20 minutes. “That makes me really excited for the future of rugby in South Africa”. It would certainly put a premium on good handling – both teams have that – and make for a tighter game, which would benefit the Springboks, who are the underdogs.
Inside centre Juan Martin Hernandez and flanker Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe were involved in the Pumas run to third place in 2007, when they beat France in the group stage and in the third-place match.
He says the final will be the game of his life.
The defending champions followed with a try to Beauden Barrett to continue their domination of South Africa.
It’s a southern hemisphere takeover, with Europe not represented in the last four for the first time in eight editions of the World Cup.
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Both teams have got off their buses and walked 50 metres between two lines of flag-waving supporters outside Twickenham’s Lion Gate entrance. Spectators stood on the stairwells overlooking that entrance for a view of the teams.
