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The match day program for the final. The 2003 Rugby World Cup Final was won by England who defeated Australia 17 to 20. The match went into extra time, in which Jonny Wilkinson kicked a drop goal to seal England's win. The match is now seen as one of the greatest ever in rugby, and one of the most memorable events in rugby's history.
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[edit] Overview
| 1500 2003-11-22 | |||
Australia  |
17–20 |  England |
Telstra Stadium, Sydney Attendance: 82,957[1] Referee: André Watson  |
| Tries:Lote Tuqiri Pen: Elton Flatley (4) |
Try: Jason Robinson Pen: Jonny Wilkinson (4) Drop goals: Jonny Wilkinson |
[edit] Team lineups
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[edit] Path to the final
Australia opened the 2003 Rugby World Cup at Telstra Stadium in Sydney, where they defeated Argentina 24 points to eight. In their second game. The next two pool games were against tier 3 nations Romania and Namibia. The match against Namibia resulted in a 142 to nil scoreline. The last pool match was against Ireland at Telstra Dome in Sydney, where the Wallabies escaped with a one point win, 17 to 16. They finished clearly on top of their pool, with 18 table points and a massive for and against.
England were in Pool C, and kicked off their campaign with an 84 to six win over Georgia, which was then followed by a match against their biggest opposition in the pool, South Africa. However, England defeated the Springboks 25 to six. Their third pool match against Samoa was a lot closer, England winning 35 to 22. Their final pool match was against Uruguay, an England won 11 to 13. England finished first in their pool, four table points ahead of the Springboks.
Australia met Scotland in the quarter finals at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, and defeated them 33 to 16 to go through to the semis, where they would take on their old rivals, the All Blacks. England defeated Wales in their quarter final, 28 to 17, and went through to meet France in the semis. The Wallabies prevailed 22 to 10 over New Zealand at Telstra Stadium. The following day England defeated France 24 to seven at the same venue.
[edit] The match
[edit] Overview
Kick-off was preceeded by Kate Ceberano's rendition of True Colours, the song which had a running theme throughout the World Cup. This was followed by the Sydney's Children Choir and the Rugby World Choir singing The World in Union. Following these performances, the traditional national anthems were performed by Australia (Advance Australia Fair) and England (God Save the Queen). Australia opened the scoring after they decided to run a penalty instead of kicking for touch. Lote Tuquiri beat England's right wing, Robinson, to a high cross-field kick and went over for the first try. Elton Flatley was not able to add the conversion though.
England dominated the rest of the half, opening up a 9-5 lead after Australian indiscipline gave away several penalties, but were unable to capitalise on their dominance. They nearly crossed the line on one occasion, when the Australian defence was stretched after a mistake and Ben Kay was given a try scoring pass. He fumbled the ball over the line. Television replays showed Kay's reaction in four letter words. Towards the end of the first half, however, England stretched their lead further. Lawrence Dallaglio made a break and popped the ball inside to Jonny Wilkinson, who drew the defence before putting Robinson away in the corner for a try. The conversion was missed, but England went in at halftime leading by 14-5, a resounding riposte to the Australian media, which had questioned England's try-scoring abilities.
In the second half, Australia tightened their discipline and solid play forced mistakes from England. The game swung from end to end, with both sides having try-scoring opportunities, but neither able to take them. Australia managed to get points on the board and Elton Flatley scored two penalties to make the score 14-11 to England. In the 79th minute, Australia were putting pressure on England in their half. England had a scrum and just needed to keep hold of the ball until time elapsed. Several scrums were reset after the front rows failed to engage properly and finally, the referee, André Watson, gave a controversial penalty to Australia, despite Englands scrum dominating the rest of the game. Elton Flatley converted it with the last kick of normal time to tie the match 14-14 and take it to 20 minutes extra time. England opened the scoring in extra time with another Wilkinson penalty, but with two and a half minutes of extra time remaining, Australia were awarded another penalty which Flatley kicked successfully. With 21 seconds left before sudden death, England's Jonny Wilkinson scored a drop goal to win the match and with it the world championship.
[edit] Statistics
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Team statistics Nations Tries Conversions Penalties Drop goals Scrums Yellow Cards Red Cards England1 0 4 0 12 0 0 Australia1 0 4 1 9 0 0
[edit] Post-final
After England captured the World Cup, Wilkinson was named the International Rugby Board's player of the year and was made a freeman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne by the city council. There was also media speculation regarding the possible knighting of squad members. Parades and celebrations were planned for after the team arrived back home.
The English squad arrived at Heathrow Airport at 0435GMT, and emerged from their plane 20 minutes later to a huge reception of English fans. Captain Martin Johnson, holding the World Cup trophy was the first player to appear, which resulted in a celebration of singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Scrum-half Matt Dawson described the reception as "mindblowing" and hooker Steve Thompson said that "Walking through Heathrow was breathtaking".[2]
A national day of celebration was held on Monday, December 8 for the English rugby team. Hundreds of thousands of fans lined the streets of London to pay tribute to the World Cup victory. The English team waited at the Marble Arch, until the Mayor of Westminster cut a red ribbon to signify the start of the parade. The two open-buses started to make their way down Oxford St, accompanied by numerous police (Scotland Yard estimated 500 were to be used for the parade). The players are all dressed in grey suits with blue shirts and red ties, and some have video cameras and cameras, as they take turns holding the trophy as the bus rolls through the tickertape parade and amidst thousands of white ballons and streets at a stand-still, with people even hanging off lamp posts and traffic lights to get a look at the team. Jason Leonard says to reporters on board that "We've got the best fans in the world".
The buses then turn down Regents St and thousands of fans start to sing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot as the buses make their way onto Piccadilly Circus. The buses then make their way through Haymarket and onwards toward Trafalgar Square where hundreds of thousands of people are waiting. As the buses become visable from Trafalgar Square, the crowd starts to sing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot as the squad approaches. Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London then awards the whole squad the freedom of London. The English squad then went onto meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace, followed by a reception at Downing Street with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ England wins World Cup. abc.net.au. Retrieved on September 18, 2006.
- ^ BBC Sport. "England rugby heroes arrive home", bbc.co.uk, 2003-11-25. Retrieved on June 7, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Australia v England - Final - rwc2003.irb.com
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| Forwards: | Back • Corry • Dallaglio • Hill • Grewcock • Johnson (c) • Kay • Leonard • Regan • Moody • Thompson • Vickery • West • White • Worsley • Woodman |  |
| Backs: | Abbott • Balshaw • Bracken • Catt • Cohen • Dawson • Grayson • Gomarsall • Greenwood • Lewsey • Luger • Robinson • Tindall • Wilkinson | |
| Coach: | Woodward | |
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| Forwards: | Baxter • Cannon • Cockbain • Croft • Darwin • Dunning • Giffin • Harrison • Lyons • Paul • Roe • Smith • Sharpe • Vickerman • Young • Waugh (vc) |  |
| Backs: | Burke • Flatley • Giteau • Gregan (c) • Grey • Larkham • Latham • Mortlock • Roff • Rogers • Sailor • Turinui • Tuqiri • Whitaker | |
| Coach: | Jones | |
