South Africa beat the NZ 12-11 to win their record fourth Rugby World Cup title at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, a suburb just north of Paris. New Zealand fought hard but could not overcome captain Sam Cane’s red card, which reduced the All Blacks to 14 men for the last 48 minutes of the match.
South Africa remains unbeaten in World Cup finals and has become the first to hold up the Webb Ellis Trophy four times.
Gentle rain at Stade de France set the tone of a low-scoring match characterised by hard-hitting defence. New Zealand’s Beauden Barrett was the only try scorer and all of South Africa’s 12 points were scored by the foot of Handré Pollard.
The old rivals and rugby’s historic heavyweights went into the match with similar World Cup runs. New Zealand lost the competition opener to France and South Africa was outclassed by Ireland before both teams fought out intense quarter-finals to make it through.
The New Zealand captain in the Rugby World Cup final had just become a spectator in the biggest match of his career on Saturday and an historic footnote to become the first to be red-carded in a Rugby World Cup final. Cane’s absence was all that made the difference.
Cane received the news that his yellow card was upgraded to red with despair. He’d been sin-binned with 51 minutes still left in the final, his team was trailing South Africa 9-3, and his absence, rather than his presence, was expected to determine the outcome.
