St Elmo's Fire

After a rather forced hiatus, it is with great pleasure that I announce the return of yours truly. My full week (and then some) of mourning is officially over and those black clouds that had become a burden on me have cleared and 'tis fair to say that life is a bit brighter!

So with great vigour , I will dissect the very interesting and rather unfancied World Cup Finalist. As always it is wise to give credit where it is due and these two teams are officially the best 2 in the world in my eyes and should be in everyone else's. For, a world cup is the true barometer with which we can truly find a world champion. That being said, too much emphasis has now been put towards the world cup being 'the holy grail' of rugby. Never mind the most consistent team in the history of the game that goes out with every intention to win every single game that they play. Never mind the team with a 42-6 win loss record over the last four years. All these stats i'm afraid amount to nothing now, for the 6 weeks of every four years this game have become the 'be all and end all.'

So what of the 'boks and the 'poms(note how only the Southern hemisphere teams have names of endearment,pumas,wallabies,abs and springboks).For me . these teams play very similar styles of rugby i.e Pound the opposition into submission in the forwards, play territorial football, forcing opposition to attack from deep within their halves and then takin any points on offer with the boot.
The 'boks however are different for they play a basic sit and wait till the opposition make a mistake and punish them style , while the poms are prepared to attack should the need arise.
So where are the weaknesses for both teams? Well for me the 'boks have a huge set piece problem and I would not be surprised if england tries to exert pressure especially at scrum time(as did the Pumas and quite effectively too) Except the poms are more adept in this department. We should see a lot of one off runners off the rucks and mauls as I beleive the poms will be silly to try spread it with the likes of Hapana Habana out wide.
For me the poms biggest weakeness will be the channels outside the inside centre and outside the centre. i don't think they have an accomplished centre pairing and Josh Lewsey will be sorely missed. The question is, will the boks venture out wide and open up the game? Simple answer to that will be no! for their same game plan has worked for them since Jake White took over so expect no changes at all.

In conclusion this will be become a kicking duel and I just have a gut feeling that some how the 'poms(who have 8 players from the previous world cup) might just fancy their chances and snatch the trophy again. Experience and B.M.T will count in this game and the 'poms have an abundance with that boy Johnny at the forefront!