dimoreien dimoreien: Ouch..Prestwick, I think it's safe to say that unless England smarten up against Samoa and Tonga, they'll be leaving the World Cup in utter humiliation...in the POOL STAGES.
They did and they did! And then they went on to beat Australia and then somehow beat France! Absolute ecstasy on both knockout games. I just can't believe how far they've gone now.
THE WORLD CUP FINAL!
South Africa are a totally different proposition though. They depend on set peice ball, performing moves from the scrum or the line out and they love turnover ball. Possibly even more than the All Blacks but then again, if you had Bryan Habana (who can do the 100 meters in 10.4 seconds and can outrun a cheetah), you'd love shipping the ball out wide after a turnover as well.
England need to slow the ball down, they need to pin the Boks back in their own half and they need to disrupt them in the line out and the scrum. Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha are both awesome operators at the line out and big Ben Kay will have a huge job to try and control that.
England can dominate the scrum and first against a team with weak forwards and then against much more formidable opposition they can dominate at the breakdown if they try hard enough. Scrum half Andy Gommersall has been electric so far, annoying and conquering both George Gregan and Jean-Baptiste Ellisade so far in this tournament. Fourie du Preez is arguably the very best in the world at Scrum half (with Dwayne Peel coming a close 2nd) so it will be facinating to watch the two duke it out.
The best plan is to dominate the ball and move it up field, use their enterprising and brutal forwards like Simon Shaw and Nick Easter to make the hard yards and then make the offloads to the faster players. The move by Shaw which almost threaded Jason Robinson through for a try against Australia was inspired. Shaw making hard yards, breaking a tackle and then distracting the Aussie in front of him before deftly passing the ball into Robinson's arms. Man in space, try time narrowly averted by George Gregan.
South Africa's center pairing of Steyn and Fourie are weak. They really, really miss the intelligence and agility of De Villiers and this explains why they're happy to ship the ball out wide or let Montgomery, James or Steyn hoof the ball far up field to touch. Occassionally they'll let du Preez set off for a run but they're not as confident in the midfield as their results suggest. Focus on Steyn, let him make a mistake, pounce and the end result is turnover ball and pressure on South Africa.
People keep saying "give Montgomery the high ball because he'll crack" but I don't think so. Most teams from England in the groups to Tonga and then Fiji tried and failed to do it. Hell even Australia and New Zealand in the Tri Nations gave it a crack and nothing happened. You can't rely on Montgomery cracking to win this match, better to focus on Pietersen first and then Montgomery. Failing that just try and get touch.
In the end, it is going to be a scintilating game. England far better improved and South Africa ready for the challenge. Let the best team win!
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