[Source: 1News]
Tomorrow’s 106th showdown between gigantic rivals New Zealand and South Africa has elevated rugby’s biggest game — if that was at all possible — to a potential do-you-remember-where-you-were moment for everyone who follows the sport, young or old, from New Zealand, South Africa or elsewhere.
Through 102 years of games in a duel that’s remained rugby’s most ferocious even when there’s no silverware at stake, the
All Blacks and the Springboks have met head-on just once in a World Cup final before.
While that 1995 title decider provided a momentous day for a newly democratic South Africa, the reality is it didn’t have the sheer rugby significance and context that this final at Stade de France in Paris has.
Rugby history will be made, no matter what, with one of the World Cup’s joint-most successful teams winning a record fourth title, a massive extra motivator in a contest that never, ever needs one.
Either South Africa coach Jacques Nienaber or New Zealand coach Ian Foster, both departing after the World Cup, will leave behind a magnificent legacy.
The All Blacks will play in a record fifth Rugby World Cup final and, for the first time, are not the favourites in this rarest of rare games.
They will clash at 7am tomorrow.
