Rugby World Cup: Historic black captain leads South Africa to victory ⁰

Siya Kolisi, became the first black captain of the South African rugby team, the springboks; to lead them to a world cup title.

He led his charges out a the Yokohama International Stadium in Japan where the competition was taking place. In the end, his team thrashed opponents England to win the title for the third time in the country’s history.

The Springboks also join New Zealand as joint-top winners – each with three trophies to their name. South Africa had previously won the trophy in 1995 and 2007.

Throwback photos to when 1995 and 2007 when then presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki received the winning trophy.

South African President Nelson Mandela ® hands over the William Webb Ellis Cup to Springbok captain Francois Pienaar after his team defeated New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup final June 24, 1995.

South Africa’s rugby captain John Smith (L) hands their World Cup trophy to President Thabo Mbeki at the Union Building in Pretoria before the Springboks paraded through the streets of Pretoria and Johannesburg October 26,2007.

Match Report

Wingers Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe scored South Africa’s first tries in a World Cup final as the Springboks out-gunned England 32-12 to win the trophy for the third time and reassert the supremacy of the southern hemisphere on Saturday.

Superb game management, set piece dominance, brutal defence and almost flawless place-kicking looked like being enough to see off an England side that had dismantled the double defending champion All Blacks in the semi-finals last week.

Mapimpi has been in prolific form this year, however, and he showed the South Africans can play a bit with ball in hand too when he finished off a try created by his own chip-through in the 66th minute.

Kolbe added the second try eight minutes later, skipping past the tackle of Owen Farrell on the wing and racing away to touch down to the delight of the South Africans in the crowd of 70,103.

Flyhalf Handre Pollard had already given the South Africans a clear lead from six penalties and he added the two conversions to take his match tally to 22.

While tactics were as traditional as the dark green Springbok shirt, the team was far more representative of a multi-racial nation than those of 1995 and 2007 and Siya Kolisi is the first black captain to lift the Webb Ellis Cup.

England came into the match with huge expectations after the New Zealand win but only offered flashes of the brilliant all-pitch game which undid the All Blacks last week.

Head coach Eddie Jones, who was in charge of Australia when England won their only World Cup in 2003, becomes the first coach to lose two finals.

Flyhalf Farrell kicked four penalties for England but they were chasing the match all evening and hanging on doggedly trying to contain the rampant Springboks by the end.

The English suffered a huge blow when prop Kyle Sinckler went off with concussion in the third minute leaving their scrum all but uncompetitive against the Springbok pack.

South Africa made the most of the weakness, winning a string of scrum penalties and building a foundation that enabled their wingers to seal the victory in the last 15 minutes.

The Springboks became the first team to lose a pool match at a World Cup and go on to win it, having lost to the All Blacks in their tournament opener at the same Yokohama International Stadium.

Source: Africa News