New Zealand defeated to Australia in the final game of the Rugby World Cup Finals, becoming the first team to ever win consecutive titles. The All Blacks took down the Wallabies at Twickenham by a score of 34-17.

Despite a second-half surge from Australia, New Zealand’s veteran presence held guide the squad to their third World Cup title in history. New Zealand finished off the Rugby World Cup with two impressive over some of the worlds best teams, including South Africa last week. 

Dan Cater proved to be the man-of-the match, providing four penalty goals in total, as well as two conversions and a late drop goal. The dropped goal from Carter came at a critical time at the match, as Australia had narrowed the score to 21-17.

“I was just yelling at the ball, ‘Go! Go!'” Carter stated amid the celebrations on Twickenham. “I wasn’t sure I had enough. I was just relieved to see it go over.”

The All Blacks executed an impressive game plan. They were able to shut the Wallabies out of the game for long stretches of the match. The Wallabies defending was able to keep the game competitive for much of the match, but in the end New Zealand proved to be too powerful a team.

Australia coach Michael Cheika was even impressed with New Zealand’s performance, admitting his team had been outplayed by one of the best squads rugby has seen. “New Zealand won the game fair and square. They have been probably the best team since the last World Cup.”

“It’s a special feeling to be part of such a great team,” stated Carter after the match.

At a ceremony held in London on Sunday, Dan Carter was named the World Rugby player of the year for the third time. Carter has announced his retirement from international rugby with a career that includes a record 1,598 points in 112 appearances. Dan Carter expected to continue his rugby career at the club level in France.

New Zealand, the reigning champions, beat South Africa over the weekend to reach their second straight World Cup final. New Zealand is now only one win away from becoming the first team in rugby union history to successfully defend a world cup title.

South Africa played an exception match, despite the weather conditions, but it proved to not be enough to take down their southern-hemisphere counterparts. The final score resulted in a 20-18 score in favor of New Zealand.

Although they have been ranked as the number one team in the world, early on the All Blacks played nothing like that of a champion. The Springboks were consistently able to breakdown any fierce scrap New Zealand provided. New Zealand trailed by five points at halftime and a man down to follow.

However, the All Blacks responded in the second half and it was clear that the game changed. By the time Jerome Kaino returned, Daniel Carter had reduced the deficit to two points with a 40-metre drop goal and a key substitution had been made.

The All Blacks entered the final quarter with a 20-15 lead. As the rain poured down from the sky, New Zealand proved to have just enough in the tank to turn the lights out on the Springboks World Cup campaign.

South Africa was able to redeem themselves and provide great competition, after beginning the tournament in the worst way possible against Japan. Although both defeats ended with a two-point defeat, they can at least walk away from the loss to New Zealand was honour. The Springboks left nothing behind, playing a ruthless match for its entirety.

As for New Zealand, they move on to the final match against Australia for the right to be crowned champions. While the All Blacks entered the tournament as strong favorites to claim back-to-back world titles, Australia appears ready to prevent the All Blacks from achieving such a feat. The match will take place at Twickenham Stadium, London on Saturday, October 31.

South Africa was the first team to advance over the weekend, with a 23-19 win over Wales at London’s Twickenham Stadium. The Springboks have rebounded well, after beginning the tournament with an embarrassing first-round loss to Japan.

While it appeared that Wales was poised to take down South Africa on Saturday — having led for the majority of the second half — in the end Wales could not hold on. A 75th-minute try by Fourie du Preez lifted South Africa past the determined Welsh squad.

The second quarterfinal match, between New Zealand and France, proved to be much less competitive. New Zealand dominated to match, eventually winning by a score of 62-12. Julian Savea played an amazing game, finishing with three tries, including one in the 38th minute where he crushed the French defenders.

Argentina, arguably the most surprising team to reach semifinal play, took down Ireland on Sunday morning by a score of 43 to 20. Ireland played great during pool play, outscoring opponents 134 to 35, but struggled against Argentina without star flyhalf Johnny Sexton.

The last semifinals spot was taken by Australia, after knocking off Scotland 35-34 in the most intense match of the tournament thus far. It appeared that Scotland was going to pull of the upset after Mark Bennett intercepted a pass in the 75th minute and took it in for the go-ahead try. But a controversial call with 5 minutes left in the match on a Scottish lineout gave the Wallabies a penalty kick in Scotland’s end. Bernard Foley was able to capitalize on the kick to give Australia the stunning win.

South Africa will face the defending champion New Zealand on Saturday, which will be broadcast on NBC at 11 a.m ET. Argentina will match up against Australia on Sunday.

South Africa has rattled off three consecutive victories since their shocking loss to Japan in the opening round of the Rugby World Cup, giving them a great deal of confidence going into their quarter-final match against Wales.

The Springboks believe they have the ability to repeat their 2007 World Cup success. “This team has the same potential to achieve something great,” said winger Bryan Habana, who scored eight times in 2007. “After that first weekend shock loss against Japan we had to stand up and be counted.”

South Africa’s World Cup campaign began in quite possibly the worst way possible with the loss to Japan. However, the team responded well with victories over Samoa, Scotland and most recently the United States to finish out Pool B play. The Springboks, the top performer in Pool B, finished with a total of 16 points edging out Scotland who finished with 10 points.

Habana has been dominate thus far, scoring three times in 21 second-half minutes against the United States. His hat trick on Saturday lifted him to join New Zealand legend Jonah Lomu at the top of the all-time World Cup try-scorers list with 15 tries.

The winger is among eight remaining players from Jake White’s squad that lifted the Webb Ellis Trophy in Paris back in 2007. The leadership from these remaining players, especially Habana, has provided much needed stability for the team, which has faced a great deal of criticism over the last several weeks.

“We have learnt quite a few lessons over the last three weeks and we can use those going into this knockout phase where you have eight of the best teams in the world competing for that little cup called Bill.” stated Habana.

The Springboks 2015 World Cup campaign certainly has a different look than it did in 2007. This year the squad has been plagued with injuries, had inconsistent play and of course the opening round loss. In 2007 South Africa had a fairly smooth run into the World Cup.

But just because there have been obstacles along the way, does not mean Habana or anyone else on the roster questions their ability to finish on top. “What happened in the past needs to stay in the past, Saturday is the only thing that counts now,” said Pat Lambie of the Springboks.

South Africa will face Wales on Saturday, who recently ended a run of 16 consecutive defeats against the Springboks back in November 2014. “We’ll have a look at what happened back in Cardiff in November and try to learn from those experiences, but we want to focus on ourselves and what we do well,” continued Lambie.

The South African Rugby team pulled out another win over the weekend to keep their Rugby World Cup hopes alive. Pitted against Scotland, arguably their toughest competition thus far, the Springboks secured the victory by a score of 34-16.

Heading into the World Cup, many expected South Africa to advance through Pool B fairly easily. Afterall, they are the third-ranked ranked team in the world and one of the best in the history of the sport. But after the Springboks were upset by Japan in their first game, doubts began to spread and many questioned how strong the team truly was.

South Africa has responded well to the embarrassing loss to Japan, finishing with two consecutive victories. They came out strong against Scotland, with flanker Schalk Burger and Winger JP Pietersen dominating the first half, leading to a 20-3 lead at the interval.

Scotland was able to fight back in the second half, pulling the score to 23-16 at one point. But South Africa proved to be the stronger of a team and continually halted any momentum by Scotland. It was clear that South Africa was not going to let another game get away from them.

The Springboks coach, Heyneke Meyer conveyed his relief after the match. “I thank the Lord for being with us. It’s been a tough two weeks,” he stated. “In the second half we lost momentum. But you have to give credit to Scotland. We knew this was a must-win.”

In the end, the Springboks had to overcome a great deal of adversity  in order to advance to the next round of the tournament. The win over Scotland shows that the Springboks are once again a formidable opponent.

South Africa will finish out Pool B play against the the United States on Wednesday. Scotland, ranked second in the Pool B table, will take on Samoa next Saturday. A victory in that game will qualify them for the next round of play.

Check out highlights from the exciting match below.

A week has passed since the Springboks opened their 2015 Rugby World Cup push with a surprising loss to Japan. The South African national team is one of the sport’s most successful teams. Japan entered the game with only one win in 24 previous World Cup matches.

There was no question that the defeat was an embarrassment for South Africa. The team’s coach, Heyneke Meyer publicly actually apologized to the nation for the loss. The Springboks’ captain, Jean de Villiers, warned that the loss could potentially break the country apart. This shows just how serious South Africa takes their rugby and how shocking this loss truly was.

All eyes were on Springboks as they entered play against Samoa yesterday, in the north of England. No one in South Africa new what to expect despite having one of the best teams in the world. There was no hiding that there were doubts about the Springboks chances following the loss to Japan; doubt is not a word commonly associated with South Africa when it comes to rugby.

“Before the Japanese match, I wouldn’t have been worried,” said Paul Fields, a South African fan who had journeyed from London that morning to support his beloved team. “But after how we played, you just can’t tell what’s going to happen.”

Despite the doubts, the passionate Springboks fans came together to cheer on their team. The 42,000-person stadium turned into a sea of green and gold, with South African fans outnumbering the Samoans by a ratio of 10 to one. For all intents and purposes, this was a home game for South Africa.

The Springboks got off to a slow start, adding some additional stress to the lives of the South African faithful. But the team soon got it together and finished the match strong. The electric atmosphere in support of South Africa helped push the Springboks towards a decisive victory by a score of 46-6. South Africa will face Scotland next, which will likely the toughest challenge yet.

Information courtesy of NY Times.

Japan beat South Africa in the Rugby World Cup by a score of 34-32 in the opening Pool B match over the weekend. This is one of the greatest upsets in the history of the Rugby World Cup as Japan was able to take down the two-time world champion.

South Africa was the third-ranked team entering the match, and despite leading 12-10 at halftime, they were unable to hold off Japan. This was the most points the Boks have ever conceded at the tournament.

Japan was incredibly aggressive and brave throughout the match right until the end. At the end, Japan opted to go for a five-meter scrum as opposed to a conserved penalty kick that would have ensured a draw.

Michael Leitch, skipper for Japan, stated after the match “I could tell they were panicking. We wanted to scrum rather than take the kick because they were down a man and I personally wanted to go for a win rather than a draw. I didn’t want to let the boys down.”

The win was completely unexpected for South Africa and their fans. The winners of the 1995 and 2007 championships have previously only lost in the World Cup to two-time champions New Zealand and Australia, in addition to England. They entered the tournament with hopes of becoming the first nation to win the World Cup on three occasions.

This was Japan’s first tournament win since beating Zimbabwe in 1991, and only their second victory in tournament history. Japan hopes to keep the momentum going to become one of the two teams from the group to qualify for the quarterfinals.

Japan’s next opponent is Scotland, who they face on Wednesday, before their match against Samoa on October 3 and then the United States eight days later.