HOW THE RUGBY WORLD CUP WAS WON

The bloody-minded Springboks pulled off three one-point wins in a row to retain the Webb Ellis Cup. RW assesses a feat that bordered on the miraculous

- ALAN DYMOCK

SOME MARGINS are so thin, you can barely fit a slip of rice paper between them. Well, on the way to their fourth World Cup victory and a second in a row, the Springboks won all three of their knockout games by a single point.

It was that sort of campaign for them. Beaten by Ireland in their third match and scraping past France in a quarter, and England in the semi, this campaign was a slugger's wonder for South Africa. There's a saying, 'There's no pictures in the autobiography' - you can colour anything in, in the retelling. Well, South Africa winning ugly was there in glorious technicolour. And it was compelling. 

Asked about what this campaign felt like compared to four years ago, captain Siya Kolisi said: “Coach Rassie (Erasmus) said, ‘Great things are never achieved in ideal conditions’ and this wasn’t ideal conditions for us as a group. Playing the home team in their home country was one of the hardest things to do and obviously when we played the last game against England, which was tight, we had to fight and today as well, no different.

“The motivation was everything from home and our families. The coaches created an environment for us where we can be with our families no matter where we are, it feels like we are home. There are 15 to 20 kids running round the hotel. It’s one of the greatest things they could have done for us. People also from South Africa, friends, used their savings to come and watch us.

“For me not to give 100% on the field would be cheating all those people and that’s what the coaches remind us of. The motivations for us, we don’t have to look far.”