Just as the game starts, the polls become gibberish.
It is England, a hypothetical candidate, who takes over the match and the scoreboard and the South Africans, who are blocked.
At this point in the match, nothing risks the outcome, the victory in extremis of the South Africans, since the current world champions appear unrecognizable, timid and overwhelmed by the English defensive system, as solid as it is efficient: the duel has taken the form of revenge .
The revenge dates back to four years ago, from the World Cup in Japan, a milestone that South Africa had won, then defeating England in the final (32-12).
Now we are in the semifinals of the 2023 World Cup, we are at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, and the English have settled on the grass. They block the way for the Springboks, they benefit from the confusion of the fly half Manie Libbok and the heel Bongi Mbonambi, very thick in the deliveries, they swell to steal oval balls.
South Africa is a flan, who would have thought.
Doesn't it have three World Cup titles, as many as New Zealand, starting with the one in 1995, the one that John Carlin had brought to literature and Clint Eastwood to cinema?
(Now, South Africans and New Zealanders will try to break the three-title tie).
South Africa is not clarified, and its sprinters, the magnificent Kurt-Lee Arendse and Cheslin Kolbe, the cousin of Wayde van Niekerk, world record holder in the 400 m, never appear.
(The anecdote has its point: in 2018, Van Niekerk blew out his knee in a charity rugby match; since then, he has not been the athlete he was.)
The South African sprinters were ruled out, the game got messy, the ball didn't run and Owen Farrell appeared. The English flyhalf does not fail in the penalty shot. He scores four in the first half, one of them from 46 meters, shots that make it 6-0 after nine minutes and 12-6 at half-time.
By then, South Africans are looking for solutions on the fly, almost desperately. The failed Manie Libbok is no longer there, replaced by Handre Pollard, and Faf de Klerk finally enters, the game-changer in the quarterfinal clash, the close victory against the host France (as close as yesterday's).
In the rain of Paris, England makes the game more sleepy. Their strategy seems to overwhelm the champion: the South Africans retain control of the oval but barely get close to the rehearsal area. A drop (long throw) by Owen Farrell makes the score 15-6, and the South Africans begin to see the dragon's eyes.
A try and a conversion are no longer enough for the South Africans to turn the game around, now they need many more milestones, and the English are not letting up. Fred Stewart, with his 1.94 and 104 kilos, hunts everything, and cuts the lines of the Springboks with astonishing ease.
And then the colossal RG Snyman (2.06m tall and 130kg), a South African second row, appears, the man who scores the only try of the match, ten minutes from the end (15-13), and now it is England that begins to tremble and South Africa, which grows: Pollard scores a punishing blow from 49 meters and sinks the runner-up, who puts her hands on her head as she kneels.
