England vs South Africa Rugby World Cup Final Preview
Martin Corry has revealed England’s “major motivation” for their showdown against South Africa on Saturday - fear of failing to do justice to the tag of world champions.
England, remarkably, have arrived as World Cup finalists despite losing 25 of their 46 Tests since Martin Johnson held aloft the Webb Ellis Trophy four years ago.
The 25th defeat - and unquestionably the most painful - came just five weeks ago when they crashed 36-0 to Pool A winners South Africa.
But despite facing overwhelming odds, they now find themselves one win away from creating rugby history as the first country to be crowned world champions twice in succession.
Leicester flanker Corry, captain in the absence of a suspended Phil Vickery against South Africa last time out, said: “Since 2003, we haven’t done the crown of world champions justice.
“That has been our major motivation.
“But it is not about what we’ve done between the World Cups, it’s about now, going into this game and doing it purely for ourselves.
“It cannot come around quickly enough. Playing in a final is everything.
“It’s like you spend your whole life dreaming and waiting to play in a World Cup final, but when you get there you try to downplay it because you don’t want to let the occasion get to you.
“When you reach a World Cup final, you want to be playing your best rugby.”
While England recovered from the Springboks drubbing by reeling off successive wins against Samoa, Tonga, Australia and France, South Africa continued on an unbeaten march, which included brushing aside Fiji and Argentina in the knockout stages.
They have scored 263 points in six games, compared with England’s 134, and posted 33 tries - 21 more than Corry and company.
On top of that, South Africa also possess the competition’s top points scorer and try scorer in Percy Montgomery and Bryan Habana, respectively.
Corry added: “I think what they (South Africa) have done is enhance their reputation even more.
“They’ve always had a direct physical game, but in the last year or two they’ve started playing a wider attacking style of play.
“There is a big physical confrontation up front. We didn’t match that in the pool game, but we’ve got another chance at it now.
“Where we have made strides is in our perception of ourselves.
“It is all very well sitting here talking about our progression though, but it means nothing if we don’t produce on Saturday.
One of the biggest challenges for England will be counting down the clock to a 9pm kick-off, local time.
Corry said: “With a nine o’clock kick-off, there is a lot of down-time.
“If I had the choice, every kick-off would be at 12 (noon), when you can just get up, have breakfast, get on the bus and go to the game.”
Mark Cueto has replaced the injured Josh Lewsey in the England team for Saturday’s clash - the only team change.
South Africa flanker Schalk Burger believes playing “hero rugby” would be the worst route for his side to take in the final.
The Springboks go into the Stade de France clash as favourites following their unbeaten run to the final and a melange of power up front and cutting edge in the backs has made Jake White’s men the stand-out team in this competition.
Burger is confident that “keeping it simple” and playing the percentages is the way to go against England.
“We don’t have to do anything new,” said the Stormers flanker, who was suspended for the meeting between the two countries last month.
“We just have to stick to the same gameplan, but maybe do it a little bit better.
“Jake has just told us to keep it simple and do what we have been doing over the past few weeks. And that’s what we are going to try to do.
“There is no room for hero rugby on Saturday, it’s just about doing the basics well. Hopefully that will be enough.”
“We know what they can offer because we have faced them before. So we are pretty well prepared for this,” he added.
“We just have to go out there are play good rugby like we have been doing.
A South Africa win on Saturday will end a long 12-year wait for world glory for the rainbow nation.
Burger wa
s a fresh-faced 12-year-old when the class of 1995, led by Francois Pienaar, defeated the All Blacks in Johannesburg to raise aloft the Webb Ellis Trophy for the first time.
He knows the whole country is pushing the team on this weekend.
“It’s been crazy back home - I think South Africans are wearing green to work!” he said.
“Twelve years ago, I didn’t understand what was going on. I had my face painted in green and after the final whistle, we didn’t watch the presentation - we just went out and played rugby on the lawn.
“We won that day and I hope we can do the same on Saturday.”
Jake White has named an unchanged starting XV for the Paris encounter.
