England 27-26 South Africa
80th-minute penalty earns England a famous victory
Nothing can entirely erase England’s disappointment at losing the 2019 World Cup final but their future is looking ever rosier. Turning over the world champions in the final seconds of a stirring contest in front of a roaring home crowd is never an everyday occurrence and the 80th-minute penalty from Marcus Smith which belatedly settled this extraordinary game was no more than his gallant, persevering side deserved.
Few, if any, teams in international rugby end up on the winning side having conceded 18 penalties to their opponents’ eight but the try count of three to one against the planet’s meanest defence was ultimately the more pertinent statistic. It summed up the see-sawing nature of a contest which both sides appeared to have won and lost on at least a couple of occasions before the wildly dramatic late denouement.
