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The 2019 Rugby World Cup comes to a close on Saturday when England takes on South Africa in Yokohama. Both teams are previous winners – England in 2003 and South Africa in both 1995 and 2007. In fact this year’s final is a repeat of 2007, a match that saw the Springboks winning 15-6 with neither side scoring any tries.
England enter the match unbeaten and clear favorites, according to both pundits and a number of betting sites. Many are calling their comprehensive victory over New Zealand in the Semi Final one of the great performances in World Cup history. Their ability to adapt to their opponents both in attack and defense has been notable.
As expected there are no changes to the England squad apart from the reserve scrumhalf role. Willi Heinz has been ruled out with a hamstring injury, necessitating the call-up of Ben Spencer from Saracens early in the week. George Ford continues at flyhalf with captain Owen Farrell at inside center. Jonny May is fit to play on the left wing after coming off early against New Zealand.
Should South Africa manage to claim their third World Cup title, they would be the first team in tournament history to do so after losing in the pool stage. Their opening round loss to the All Blacks seems a distant memory now, however, as they have rattled off five wins in a row with only Wales hitting double digits in points against.
Rassie Erasmus has made just one change to his match day 23. Cheslin Kolbe is declared fit to resume duty, shaking off a persistent ankle injury to take over from S’bu Nkosi on the right wing. Otherwise the lineup is identical with Siya Kolisi as captain, Handré Pollard the goal kicker, and a 6-2 split on the bench.
With the Springboks unlikely to deviate much from the style that has put them into the final, points will be hard to come by. Both teams have proven exceptional in defense with South Africa conceding just 9 points on average and England slightly below that mark. The kicking tandem of Ford and Farrell, and long-range threat of Elliot Daly, gives England more options than the Springboks though both sides have dangerous outside backs if they choose to use them.
The two sides will be very familiar with each other having played four times in 2018, with five matches in all post RWC-2015. England have won three of those including once at Cape Town. This suggests that confidence will not be overly significant, leaving form, execution, and tactics as the key factors. In all three the edge goes to England and it will be up to South Africa to show they can offer something new if they are to emerge the winners. Take England to win their second World Cup in a low-scoring and tense battle.
Kickoff is set for 6pm local time, 2am Pacific, 5am Eastern, and 6am in Rio de la Plata. Live broadcasts will be available on ESPN 3 in Latin and South America, NBC Sports Network in the USA, and on TSN channels 1 and 4 in Canada.
RECENT HEAD-TO-HEAD
2018-11-03 – England 12-11 South Africa (Twickenham)
2018-06-23 – South Africa 10-25 England (Cape Town)
2018-06-16 – South Africa 23-12 England (Bloemfontein)
2018-06-09 – South Africa 42-39 England (Johannesburg)
2016-11-12 – England 37-21 South Africa (Twickenham)
ENGLAND RWC 2019 RESULTS
W – England 35-3 Tonga
W – England 45-7 USA
W – England 39-10 Argentina
D – England 0-0 France
W – England 40-16 Australia
W – England 19-7 New Zealand
SOUTH AFRICA RWC 2019 RESULTS
L – New Zealand 23-13 South Africa
W – South Africa 57-3 Namibia
W – South Africa 49-3 Italy
W – South Africa 66-7 Canada
W – Japan 3-26 South Africa
W – Wales 16-19 South Africa
TEAMS
ENGLAND
1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Jamie George, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Courtney Lawes, 6 Tom Curry, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Billy Vunipola, 9 Ben Youngs, 10 George Ford, 11 Jonny May, 12 Owen Farrell (capt.), 13 Manu Tuilagi, 14 Anthony Watson, 15 Elliot Daly
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Dan Cole, 19 George Kruis, 20 Mark Wilson, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Henry Slade, 23 Jonathan Joseph
SOUTH AFRICA
1 Tendai Mtawarira, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 3 Frans Malherbe, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 5 Lood de Jager, 6 Siya Kolisi (capt.), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 9 Faf de Klerk, 10 Handré Pollard, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 12 Damian de Allende, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 15 Willie le Roux
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Franco Mostert, 21 Francois Louw, 22 Herschel Jantjies, 23 Frans Steyn
Date: Saturday, November 2
Venue: International Stadium, Yokohama
Kickoff: 18:00 local (02:00 Pacific, 05:00 Eastern, 06:00 Rio de la Plata)
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistants: Romain Poite (France) & Mark O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
Broadcasts: ESPN 3 (Latin/South America), NBCSN (USA), TSN 1/4 (Canada)
