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Six Nations statement: Tom Curry 'Tunnelgate' incident
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South Africa concede their first ever World Cup final try
By Josh Raisey
After 320 minutes across over three-and-a-half matches of action, South Africa have conceded their first ever World Cup final try.
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The All Blacks tried in 1995 and failed even with extra time, then England had two bites of the cherry in 2007 and 2019 and came up short both times. It has taken four matches for a side to finally cross the Springboks’ whitewash in a final, with the All Blacks’ fullback Beauden Barrett doing the honours at the Stade de France.
Even then the All Blacks made hard work of scoring the try, and barely came close to breaching the Boks’ defence throughout the entirety of the first-half as the reigning champions came out the blocks flying with the energy and aggression that they lacked the week before against England.
Barrett was in support to collect an offload from winger Mark Telea to dot down in the corner on 58 minutes following a period of sustained pressure on South Africa’s line for what was the first try of the match following an hour of penalties. The try made the score 12-11 to South Africa after Richie Mo’unga failed to convert the try.
The All Blacks thought they had scored their first try a few minutes before when Aaron Smith was on the end of a Mo’unga break, but the try was ruled out for a knock on at a maul beforehand.