5. England 21 – 44: 1999 Rugby World Cup Quarter-Final
October 24th 1999, Stade de France, Paris
It took until the fourth iteration of the Rugby World Cup, for England and South Africa to meet in the competition. The two sides first went to battle in the quarter-finals of the 1999 Rugby World Cup. England finished second in Pool A, with wins over Tonga and Italy, but suffered a 30-16 loss to the All Blacks in a top-spot decider. Sir Clive Woodward’s men then battled passed Fiji, in the long forgotten quarter-final play-offs system.
South Africa entered the quarter-finals one match fresher, having completed a clean sweep of pool stage wins over Scotland, Uruguay and Spain. The Springboks watched on as England were left beaten and bruised by Fiji, in a style now all too similar to how Marcus Smith and co were hit from pillar to post, some 24 years later, but once again in France.
The opening 25 minutes saw a kicking match break-down, between England’s Paul Grayson and South Africa’s Jannie de Beer. In a style that has since been followed in each of the following knock-out stage matches, the early points were scored by the boots of the halfbacks. However, for every penalty that Grayson nailed from the tee, de Beer responded with a finely struck drop goal to level the scorings. This pattern ran until Grayson edged in front with a 9-6 lead, but only before the Springboks crossed over for the first try of the match.
Scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen claimed the break-through try, with de Beer again adding the extras in a fine sharpshooting performance. Grayson retaliated with his fourth penalty, with de Beer adding his own in a playground like match of one-upsmanship. The metronomic kicking continued, with a rhythmic pattern of Grayson, de Beer, Grayson, de Beer, once again hypnotising the 75,000 fans inside the Stade de France. The pattern was abruptly ended by the introduction of a 20-year-old Jonny Wilkinson, before South Africa ran away with the match in the final eight minutes of play.
19 unanswered points saw the floodgates finally open on England, as South Africa’s fly-half kicked a pair of penalties and drop goals, before he added the conversion on Pieter Rossouw’s 84th minute try. The overall score-line is an unfair reflection of the hotly contested match, with the Springboks able to quite literally kick into top gear, for a race to the finish. This sent England tumbling out of the 1999 Rugby World Cup, and they would have to wait four years to make amends on their path to immortality.