George is no doubt still feeling the effects of a wonderful weekend's rugby. The Springbok side recorded it's first ever tournament win on home soil since the event was first staged 10 years ago with a hard-fought win over the All Blacks in the much anticipated Cup final.
The Boks went into the tournament as outsiders despite the fact that they won the Dubai tournament last weekend. It's been their bogey-tournament having never won in George before Saturday. South Africa started their campaign against the USA, who've given a good account of themselves in past tourname! nts. The Boks won the match 24 - 0 but gave away far too many penalties which they, at any other venue on any other day against better opposition, would have been punished for. Their ill-discipline led to the sending off of Phillip Snyman in the final seconds.
Then along came minnows Georgia who were never really going to bother the Springboks. The only thing that coach Paul Treu would've been a little irritated with was the fact that Georgia managed a second half try.
The stage was set for a thrilling finish to the day when the Boks met Australia, argueably their biggest challenge of ! the group stage. The match was played at a frantic pace with b! oth side s exchanging early blows, but South Africa ran away with it in the second half and recorded a 17 - 7 win. Last week's finalists, England lay in wait for the Boks. The English were hyped up by the media and many felt South Africa's tournament would come to an end. But the Boks had other intentions, running the erratic English off their feet. They recorded a 17 - 12 win despite a strong comeback at the end by England.
Fiji had no answer for the Boks and the passionate crowd and wilted to a 21 - 7 defeat. There were two clear camps in the stands for the final, those flying All Black flags and those wearing the green and gold from almost head to toe. The All Blacks opened the scoring courtesy of converted try by DJ Forbes. Renfred Dazel dotted down for the Boks to take them to within two points at halftime. But three minutes from time, captain Mzwandile Stick crashed over the line and added the extras to give the Boks a narrow 12 - 7 victory.
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