Rugby World Cup Blog | Jonah Lomu | 2007

Jonah hails game of the week...

Sun Sep 23 11:58AM

Today was always going to be a great day for rugby, with a fantastic line-up of games. Before watching the match I believed South Africa would beat Tonga comfortably, but the Islanders would put up a good fight and it would be one of the most physical encounters in this tournament.

Having stepped off a flight from Paris to London to wait for our connecting flight to Edinburgh, the score that greeted us was 7-3 at half time. I had to take a second look at the screen but judging by the frenetic pace of the first five minutes of the second half I could see why the score was so close. If the IRB are thinking about reducing the number of teams playing in the next world cup to 16 then they need to consider games like this one before they make the decision.

The fact that Jake White put his whole bench on five minutes into the second half speaks volumes about the level of rugby Tonga were playing and the fact he completely underestimated their ability to compete head-on. With his front line players sitting on the bench, South Africa struggled to compete. It was only when the bench took the field that they began to make some inroads and find some shape to their game. It was worrying to see Danie Rossouw stretchered off and I wish him a speedy recovery.

Although a little rattled with the changes, Tonga soon found their World Cup legs again and discovered that they needed to run at the South African defence and found holes that created opportunities for tries. Great vision shown by Pierre Hola to create a superb try for Tonga kicking with pin-point accuracy to the corner. His penalty kicking kept the score line close and the Tongans in the game.

With the unfortunate sending off of two players one from each side followed quickly by Brian Habana being binned for a professional foul the Tongans made the most of the opportunity posting another try. With less than 2 minutes to go the Tongans got the ball and made a strong attack towards the South African line with Hola kicking the ball into space behind the South African defence for the winger to run onto. Unfortunately the ball went over the touch line about two metres from the tryline and with 20 seconds to go the ref blew the whistle for full-time, the score 30 to 25.

When you have two teams that play the game as physically as these two it sets the World Cup alight and this was one great game of rugby to watch. It was another demonstration of the growth and development of the smaller nations like Tonga, Georgia and Samoa to name a few.

The second game of the day was the England-Samoan match which I thought would be a tough game with a real possibility for a Samoan win. The English started the game the best way possible for them, scoring a quick try and converting it to take a seven-point lead. They made hard work of the try after a charge down but got the points. The English had to go through many phases to achieve their second try, the Samoan defence was strong but a beautiful kick through by Jonny created a try for the right winger Paul Sackey. It was good to see Jonny Wilkinson finding some form.

The Samoans started strongly in the second half with Loki Crichton putting three points on the board after Wilkinson gave away a penalty. In the 46th minute quick hands and a beautiful chip kick by Schwalger was finished off in true style by my friend Junior Polu who I played with at North Harbour. The Samoans were back in the game in a big way with only four points in it. The Samoans were there until the last quarter of the game when England put in a strong finish taking the score to 44 - 22 which I think is an unfair final score not truly reflecting the game. The Samoans should be very proud of the rugby they played.

I didn't expect such a big result from the Argentina-Namibia match. I thought Argentina would score more than 60 points, but I really believed Namibia could offer more than three points. Definitely after this solid game they deserve their ranking of number four in the world. For the last few years Argentina have constantly improved year after year.

They do the basics very well and that's fundamental to winning rugby matches. They have a great defence, they still remain the only side at the World Cup that has not yet conceded a try. Their backline can be amazing to watch when they've got the ball in hand. With Pichot, Contepomi, Herndandez, Corletto or Todeschini, they create danger everywhere.

I think most of their improvement is due to the fact that they play in Europe for most of their careers and have gained some great experience. But in saying that Argentinians have done things well by bringing some young players to this World Cup as well, growing their team and their experience for the future. It will set them up well for the next World Cup and right now they have a good chance for the quarters.

Next week they come up against Ireland and this will be a really tough game for Ireland. It's time for Ireland to pick their game up but Argentina will go into the game as clear favourites. And they've prepared well for this crucial game in Paris, they are going to play for the win. If they do pull of the win then France will meet the All Blacks in Cardiff that said you just never know in rugby.  Jonah.

Likes: Seeing a team like Tonga compete head on with the South Africans and to really challenge them for what would have been the upset of the tournament was fantastic. I'm proud of them and I know back in New Zealand my mother would have been glued to the TV willing them to win.

The near-upset of the week: Tonga almost putting South Africa away and demonstrating some fantastic skills and competitiveness against one of the top sides in the tournament.

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