Rugby's one and only King will be crowned today

There is an anonymous rugby phrase that goes “The earth shakes, mothers hide their children, men fear” when South Africa and New Zealand face each other. Because All Blacks and Springboks Marching to Hell”. And the clash between the two teams is recognized as the best rivalry in the world; Not only because they face the two teams with the most world titles on the planet – both with three – but also because they inspire legends, political conflicts and even movies. Tonight (9:00pm), additionally, will be the closing match of the 2023 World Cup in France.. The grand finale. In it, the two teams that have won the last four world titles will compete for the prize of being the most successful team in history. Whoever wins, they will amass four titles, the most ever achieved by any team. So far, no one has been champion four times. Because South Africa has 1995, 2007 and 2019 World Cups on its record; New Zealand, 1987, 2011 and 2015.

The last time the All Blacks and Springboks met in a World Cup final was 28 years ago., along with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in the movie Invictus, the two most famous fights. It recreates what is known as Mandela's final contest, which took place three years after the end of apartheid in the country. The bye to a ruthless regional system was systematically used for almost 50 years, whereby South Africa not only kept only white players in its squads, but also did not accept to face opponents who violated this rule. It was not until the 1995 World Cup, which led to the elimination of the Springboks from major sporting events, that South Africa returned to the Oval world, now without its separatism. so, Thanks to Mandela, rugby stopped being a cause of division and became a link between different races. In the final of that thrilling edition, New Zealand and South Africa clashed in a tight game, winning 15-12 with no tries in the second half of extra time. Notably, Joel Stransky scored all the points for South Africa and Andy Mertens scored all the points for New Zealand.

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However, the 2023 World Cup final will be held tonight. Slightly skewed towards All Blacks. New Zealand have lost just one game in the tournament, mercilessly beating France (27-13), then Namibia (71-3), Italy (96-17) and Uruguay (73-0) in the first leg. So, their biggest fight in this edition was the quarter-final against Ireland, where they had to use themselves to settle it 28-24 in the last seconds. In the semi-final against Argentina, Los Pumas were no match for the All Blacks, who won 6–44, the second biggest defeat in the tournament's semi-final history, surpassed only by the clash between New Zealand and Wales (49–6) in 1987.

But if the semi-final between New Zealand and Argentina was one of the most lopsided in memory, the semi-final between South Africa and England will be one of the closest in history. Indeed, Handre Pollard's penalty shot from 49 meters in the 78th minute tied the match in favor of the Springboks (15-16). But their path to this World Cup has been tough, losing to Ireland (8-13) and beating Scotland (18-3), Romania (76-9) and Tonga (49-18) to reach the quarter-finals. Host France, ranked fourth in the world, narrowly won (28-29), as did fifth-ranked England in the semi-finals. But they are all useless numbers, Now they only have 80 minutes, which could inspire a new movie like Invictus 2.