2023-09-29 14:43:00
10. France – New Zealand 2007
Score : 20-18
Round: quarter-final
Lieu : Millennium Stadium (Cardiff)
Date: October 6, 2007
Once again, one of those matches where the French team is destined to hell to better reach paradise. “So French…” Its defeat against Argentina in the opening match forced Bernard Laporte’s squad to face New Zealand in the quarter-finals in… Cardiff, while this 2007 edition is ” at home” for her. What are the French chances? Thin, a priori.
The Blues believe in it, despite everything. Even before kick-off, they send a first strong signal by coming to challenge the Blacks’ haka, eye to eye. The image leaves an impression. Above all, it will not be just a blip even if the first period, which the Tricolores finished 10 points behind (13-3) hardly encourages optimism. But Lionel Beauxis, by opening the French counter just before half-time, somewhat put his team back in the saddle.
The second period imposes the blue rebellion. The Blacks, perhaps still marked by the specter of the 1999 semi-final, have more and more doubts over time. In the 69th minute, Yannick Jauzion, after a breakthrough from Fred Michalak, found the promised land and the French XV took the advantage for the first time (20-18). Was there ahead? Maybe. Certainly. But the referee did not see it and the XV du Coq, enormous in defensive mastery and discipline in the last ten minutes, clung to its two small points lead until the end.
For New Zealand, the defeat is historic: it is the first time (and the only time to date) that it has not appeared in the last four of the World Cup. The Blues did it again.
9. Fiji – Wales 2007
Score : 38-34
Round: group stage
Location: Stade de la Beaujoire (Nantes)
Date: September 29, 2007
Some say it was the greatest match in World Cup history. To appear even higher in our ranking, it undoubtedly lacks having been “only” a group match, even if it has the value of an unofficial round of 16 since the winner knows that he will join South Africa in quarters. But what a pure feast for the eyes, one of those matches that makes you love rugby for life.
It’s a real fireworks display over 80 minutes. To summarize, a hellish chase, nine tries in total for an offensive orgy, high-class gestures (Delasau’s follow-up kick for himself, Shane Williams’ 70-meter try) and suspense mad.
Gareth Jenkins, the Welsh coach, will ensure that he has put in place a game plan likely to lock down the match to limit the Fijian offensives. It’s an understatement to say that nothing went as planned for the Devils. Trailing 25-3 after 25 minutes, the XV du Poireau had no other choice but to let go of the horses in turn. He will regain the score in the second half but the astonishing crossover offers the last word to the Fijians five minutes from the end. Breathtaking.
8. England – New Zealand 2019
Score : 19-7
Round: semi-final
Lieu : Stade International (Yokohama)
Date: October 26, 2019
The dream poster. The “match of the century” as presented by the English press. New Zealand, double title holder and undefeated in the World Cup since the quarter-final in Cardiff against France in 2007, is only two steps away from an unprecedented treble. Facing it, Eddie Jones’ England is the other juggernaut of international rugby. It’s “only” a semi-final, but it’s the match everyone was waiting for. It will not disappoint, even if its scenario will surprise with the extent of English domination.
It is a jewel of modern rugby that His Majesty’s XV provides, both devastating power and absolute tactical mastery. We are here facing a very Cartesian demonstration, far from the gentle French madness of Twickenham during another semi-final, that of 1999. Here, everything is square to the millimeter, without excessive fantasy, but it is impossible not to salute this rugby. The first try of the match, signed by Manu Tuilagi after only 97 seconds of play, will set the tone while summing up the English performance. Rarely have Blacks appeared so powerless. And again, the final score seems almost kind to them.
Clive Woodward, hero coach of 2003, will find the right measure to qualify the feat of this England: “We must distinguish between accomplishment and performance. Beating Australia in the final of the 2003 World Cup remains the most great achievement in the history of English rugby, but this semi-final against the All Blacks, in terms of performance, surpasses everything.” Like the Blues in 1999, England will nevertheless come up against the Springboks in the final.
7. Japan – South Africa 2015
Score : 34-32
Round: group stage
Lieu : Falmer Stadium (Brighton)
Date: September 19, 2015
Before facing Bryan Habana’s South Africa in the group stage in 2015, Japan had only won once in the history of the Rugby World Cup, against Zimbabwe in 1991. But when Karne Hesketh, who entered in the 79th minute, received his first ball of the match and flattened it in the corner four minutes after the siren to give the Japanese victory (34-32), no one remembers it anymore.
The Springboks broke in front of a team that they pierced without much difficulty, but which in return inflicted on them a lesson in tactics, humility, and audacity. The two teams fought blow for blow, and the better one won in a sublime outcome. Because the Brave Blossoms have gone through all the emotions.
In the 78th minute, they thought about scoring the winning try but the video does not allow us to say whether the ball was flattened or not. False joy and melee to follow. Then penalty for Japan. Dilemma: take the three points to secure an already historic draw or go all out? Confident of their pack, the Japanese take on a new melee. At the end of an unbreathable sequence and several fixation points, the essay, the happiness and the legend are at the end.
These 80 minutes mark the sensational entry of a country onto the international scene: it is the “miracle of Brighton”, and the greatest sensation in the entire history of the World Cup.
6. Australia – Ireland 1991
Score : 19-18
Round: quarter-final
Lieu : Lansdowne Road (Dublin)
Date: October 20, 1991
The Australian team against the Irish people; This is how we can summarize this majestic quarter-final of October 20, 1991. Crowned two matches later, Australia was on the edge of the precipice that day. In Dublin, in a white-hot Lansdowne Road stadium where everyone wants to see the men in green perform the miracle, the Wallabies are trailing 18-15 with five minutes remaining.
On a final offensive, the untenable David Campese failed to score his third try of the match. He manages to pass the ball to flyhalf Michael Lynagh, the other man in the Australian coronation, who flattens the ball in a corner to plunge the Dublin enclosure into an excruciating and unforgettable silence. A striking contrast to say the least with the explosion at old Lansdowne a few moments earlier.
Gordon Hamilton believes he has scored the feat and qualification try, causing the pitch to be invaded by excited Green supporters. Fate, and David Campese, decided otherwise that day. Perhaps the biggest heartbreak in the history of the World Cup for the home crowd. It was an autumn afternoon in 1991. Thirty-two years later, Ireland has still not reached the semi-finals of the World Cup…
5. New Zealand – England 1995
Score : 45-29
Round: semi-final
Venue: Newlands Stadium (Cape Town)
Date: June 18, 1995
The day Jonah Lomu changed rugby forever. 74 points were scored during this exciting and very high-level semi-final, between two of the most playful rugby teams of the moment. However, this June 18, 1995 only bears the name of one man: Jonah Lomu. The New Zealand winger, who has just celebrated his 20th birthday, disintegrated the XV de la Rose single-handedly by scoring four tries, each more stupefying in power than the last.
The prize goes perhaps to the first of them, which remains the most famous, when Lomu escapes two players before stepping on the unfortunate Mike Catt, in the 5th minute. Everything is done with disarming ease. Like when before half-time, Lomu brings English wing three-quarter Tony Underwood into touch, before giving him a broad smile of challenge.
England were not to be outdone that day in Cape Town, however, and their reaction after the break remained remarkable. Quite simply, it can do nothing in the face of the best individual performance of a player who is about to shake up the history of rugby. It’s a shock, and not just for the English, as the Kiwi giant seems to have invented in 80 minutes a new version of this sport which then enters professionalism. There is a before and after June 18, 1995. And if Lomu will never win the World Cup, this third edition is forever his.
4. France – Australia 1987
Score : 30-24
Round: semi-final
Lieu : Concord Oval (Sydney)
Date: June 13, 1987
Was “French flair” born on June 13, 1987, on the lawn of the Concord Oval in Sydney? In any case, it is in its most prestigious form that it appears, when Serge Blanco resists the orange tide to give victory to the Blues. What followed was a recovery on the ground, a kick from Patrice Lagisquet, post-contact passes from Ondarts, Rodriguez, Charvet. Then, finally, the KO, after an anthology oblique sprint from the Pelé of rugby. The end of the world and the end of time essay. A legendary essay.
At 24 everywhere, in front of the Australian public, in the semi-final of the first World Cup in the history of rugby, the action instantly enters the pantheon of the greatest sequences of the game. It constitutes the culmination of an exceptional meeting by its intensity and quality. Criticized and announced as an expiatory victim, Jacques Fouroux’s team sublimates itself to compete with Australia, arch-favorite of this semi-final but a little too sure of its doing. The XV of France did what it does best when it is at its best: amaze and enthuse.
But it is also, and perhaps above all, the true birth certificate of the World Cup, which then saw its very first edition. Born with moderate enthusiasm, she had to convince. After this masterpiece of a match, no one will contest the legitimacy and relevance of the global meeting. At Concord Oval, on June 13, 1987, it was rugby that won a huge victory.
3. South Africa – New Zealand 1995
Score: 15-12 (after extra time)
Round: final
Lieu : Ellis Park (Johannesburg)
Date: June 24, 1995
A South African Airways Boeing 747 tears through the sky over Johannesburg, at very low altitude. “Good Luck Booke”, can be seen written on the fuselage (Good luck, Boks). The symbol of a nation which stands as one behind its national team, as the final of the 1995 World Cup begins. Its World Cup, which marks the great return to the international scene of South Africa, deprived of first two editions due to Apartheid.
It was in fact on this day, at the cost of a meeting where History took precedence over the game, that the legend of a united and victorious South Africa was born. A year after the election of Nelson Mandela, the first black president at the head of the South African state, Captain François Pienaar lifts the Webb-Ellis trophy. Rugby offers the Rainbow Nation the most beautiful symbol of its rebirth, to the great dismay of New Zealand and its new asset, Jonah Lomu. Who would later say: “That day, the South Africans all gathered together.”
The game will be the big absentee from this final, the only one without the slightest try since 1987. No try, several misses on goal, a very tense climate and the start of a scuffle at the end of the match. One thing is certain: on the ground, it does not qualify for the pantheon of the most exciting encounters in history. The electric atmosphere of the Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg still gives the meeting a little of its grandeur. Its historical significance too, of course.
The Springboks were the only ones to control Lomu in this 1995 World Cup. It is also a story of drops. Those missed by Andrew Mehrtens, and the victorious one by Joel Stransky, to seal the fate of the match in overtime and turn the opener into a national hero.
2. England – Australia 2003
Score: 20-17 (after overtime)
Round: final
Lieu : Telstra Stadium (Sydney)
Dates: November 22, 2003
A match of capital importance in the history of the World Cup, which led to what remains to this day the only victory for a team from the northern hemisphere. An indisputable page of history therefore, largely bearing the stamp of Jonny Wilkinson’s talent. An assist, four penalties, and above all a drop in the 99th minute after a high-tension overtime… Perhaps the most famous and decisive gesture in the history of the event. “Wilko” splashed the 2003 World Cup final with all his class.
Despite the temperament of his opposite number Elton Flatley, who snatched the extension of a penalty at the siren, the Wallabies – who then sought to become the first nation to retain their title after their victory in 1999 – bowed to the XV de la Rose, which thus achieved a formidable Grand Slam – World Cup double.
Wilkinson’s left paw was then the absolute weapon of the XV de la Rose, the one which punishes its opponents each in turn thanks to the power of its formidable pack of forwards (Johnson, Dallaglio, Vickery, Kay). We almost forget the supersonic Jason Robinson, who went for his test at the end of the race against Australia. Clive Woodward’s England didn’t play the most exciting game, but they changed the world. Its opener wrote history. His own, that of his country and of rugby.
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