Paris - South Africa won the championship of the 2007 Rugby World Cup by beating holders England 15-6 in a hard-fought title match played Saturday at the Stade de France outside Paris. The tournament's leading scorer, Percy Montgomery, converted all four of his penalty kicks and young Francois Steyn kicked another to account for all of the points for the Springboks, who became only the second team, after England in 2003, to win the title without scoring a try.
In winning their second World Cup championship, the Springboks put a halt to a surprising run by England, which began five weeks ago after they were crushed 36-0 by South Africa in a pool match.
The rematch between the two sides was the first title match in World Cup history between two teams that had already played each other in the pool competition.
As expected from two teams with big, physical forwards, the game was brutal in the ruck and breakdown, with both sides forcing turnovers and putting intense pressure on the ball-carriers and kickers.
South Africa won because they kicked better, were superior in the line-outs and made fewer mistakes that the English did.
The match began as a test of strength, with England holding a small edge in territorial occupation. The first break came in the 6th minute, when outside centre Mathew Tait fielded a kick within his 22 metre line and slipped as he turned upfield.
He was immediately covered by three Springbok defenders and penalized for not releasing the ball. Montgomery converted his 14th penalty kick of 15 attempts in the tournament, and South Africa led 3-0.
England quickly equalized after a South African turnover, when the hero of the 2003 World Cup, Jonny Wilkinson, converted a tough penalty kick from 40 metres at 13 minutes.
Just three minutes later, Montgomery gave the Boks the lead for good with his second penalty kick, after flanker Lewis Moody was judged guilty of tripping.
At 17 minutes, Wilkinson missed a drop kick. Steyn, a certain future star for South Africa, missed a penalty kick from 50 metres five minutes later, and the match turned into a ferocious struggle for territory, with the focus on the kickers on both sides.
In the 35th minute, Steyn ran brilliantly to spark an offensive move that brought South Africa to within centimetres of the England try line. But the English defence held and the Boks lost the ball on a knock-on.
Moody was penalized again just before time, for coming into the ruck from the side. Montgomery's conversion gave him 102 points for the tournament, the ninth player to surpass 100 points in a World Cup, and sent the Boks into the dressing room with a 9-3 lead.
The second half began ominously for the English as their captain, Phil Vickery, was replaced at prop by Matt Stevens after an injury. England soon also lost fullback Jason Robinson and centre Mike Catt, who had kicked well, to injury.
The English came agonizingly close to a try in the 43rd minute, when Tait broke through the South African defence for a brilliant 60-metre run, to be stopped just short of the try line.
On the ensuing play, wing Mark Cueto appeared to have touched down, but the video replay showed that the Springbok number 8 Danie Rossouw had pushed him over the touch line before the ball touched the ground.
But South Africa was penalized on the play, and Wilkinson converted to reduce the score to 9-6.
Montgomery kicked his fourth penalty in the 51st minute, after flanker Martin Corry was sanctioned for not releasing the ball, to restore the South African 6-point lead.
Desperately needing a try, England went on the offensive, looking for openings in the Springbok defence. But wing Paul Sackey was penalized for an illegal screen, and Steyn converted from 48 metres for the final score.
England spent the final 10 minutes relentlessly battering away at the South Africans, but they were pushed back by the tenacious defence and forced into handling mistakes.
And Montgomery and flyhalf Butch James kicked brilliantly, as they had done all match long, to give their side breathing space.
The winners were the only team to go through the tournament undefeated, and had the leading scorer in Montgomery, who finished the World Cup with 105 points, and the top try-maker in wing Bryan Habana, with eight.
