Matches of the Year
There were, of course, great matches this year. If the side you were ardent about won, the match was all the greater.
Being dispassionate is hard for any rugby watcher. Even if you are not a particular supporter of any team in a match you will probably develop a preference as the match goes on. It’s hard to be dispassionate, impartial, neutral – or whatever.
What makes a great match? Probably it is one played by top players with great skill in an exciting way, usually with a close score.
We shall try to pick on some matches that were more stirring than others. Some of them are exciting because the ending has made them so; some were just of high quality (and speed) throughout; some were great in what they achieved for the winner; some are great through their unpredictability. In all our matches the participants are top class players.
The exciting ending
There was the finish to Ireland vs Australia. A really good match made all the better by that sudden cut through by Brian O’Driscoll for the try that drew the match. Australia, who had beaten England, were leading 16-9 with two minutes to play and the Grand Slam in their sights. Suddenly O’Driscoll took a pass from Tomas O’Leary and sliced clean through for a try behind the posts.
In the quarterfinal of the Heineken Cup in April, Julien Dupuy of Leicester Tigers swivelled around and darted over for the winning try against Bath.
In the Super 14, Mark Gerrard scored a try on 80 minutes to tie the score with the Crusaders in Canberra and then Stirling Mortlock kicked the winning conversion. The Hurricanes scored two tries in the last three minutes to beat the Western Force 28-27 in Perth. The match in Canberra between the Brumbies and the Bulls was a thriller. The Brumbies scored a penalty and a try by Christian Lealiifano and then a conversion by Stirling Mortlock to win 32-31.
There was the second Test between South Africa and the Lions, made exhaustingly exciting by the last seven minutes. First Jaque Fourie squeezed over for a great try in the right corner when the Lions led 22-18. Morn? Steyn converted from touch.
25-22 to South Africa. Then Stephen Jones goaled a penalty and then came the dramatic finish – a climax if you were a Springbok supporter, a deflating anti-climax if you supported the Lions. Ronan O’Gara ran out of defence, kicked high and was penalised for playing Fourie du Preez illegally. Up came Morn? Steyn and his long, 55-metre kick sailed perfectly through the posts and the final whistle went. South Africa had won 28-25 and with it the series.
Steyn, for the Blue Bulls, did it again in the semifinal of the Currie Cup against Western Province. Two minutes from the end of the match he slotted a winning penalty from 42 metres out and 6 metres in from touch.
They were not the only kicks that thrilled at the death. They were penalties but dropped goals have an even greater effect.
Leon MacDonald kicked his only ever drop in Super rugby and Crusaders took a winning 15-13 lead with four minutes to play against the Blues. There is less preparation, less predictability and leaves the conceding side so helpless. Derick Hougaard
kicked an exciting drop to give Saracens a 24-23 victory over the Springboks before a big crowd at Wembley. In the Currie Cup semifinal, Sharks played Free State Cheetahs in Durban, one played four with all the odds on one but with just over a
minute to go Jacques-Louis Potgieter dropped a goal and his team won 23-21. There was less than a minute to play when Christian Lealiifano dropped the goal which enabled the Brumbies to beat the Highlanders 33-31. Two dropped goals, by Andr?
Pretorius and Earl Rose, enabled the Lions to beat the Cheetahs 34-28. It was not the only match with two dropped goals at the death. Ireland were down 6-0 at half-time against Wales and then O’Driscoll struck. Ireland were leading 14-12 when, with just five minutes left, Stephen Jones dropped a goal. Two minutes later Ronan O’Gara dropped the winning goal.
There was a happy aftermath. The final whistle went, Jones and O’Gara hugged and swapped jerseys.
Great throughout
There were matches which in themselves were great matches. The match at Twickenham between the Barbarians and the All Blacks was a match of great verve and skill. In the Six Nations there was Wales vs England, a wonderful match of movement, intensity and tension.
The Heineken Cup Final was tense as Leinster came from behind with a try, conversion and penalty to beat Leicester Tigers 19-16, the winning penalty kicked by Jonathan Sexton.
The final of the Air New Zealand Cup was a match of high quality and it was almost close as Scott Fuglistaller scored for Wellington to make the score 25-20 to the Crusaders with six minutes to play, but then Stephen Brett kicked a penalty and, yet again, the Lions were beaten finalists.
At Carisbrook it was 20-17 to France going into the last 10 minutes and then Maxime M?dard intercepted and scored and finally Ma’a Nonu scored in France’s 27-22 victory.
There was the Super 14 Final – an astonishing match which the Blue Bulls won by a record score much to the delight of the blue-hued supporters of the Bulls.
There is a story that during the match, Mils Muliaina, the Chiefs’ captain, said to referee Jonathan Kaplan, “Please, sir, can we have a ball?” Kaplan said: “There’s already a ball on the field.” Muliaina replied: “Yes, but they’ve got that one. Can we have one, too?”
The Bulls, who had had an excellent match with the Crusaders in the semifinals in winning 36-23, broke all sorts of records in winning 61-17.
Unpredictability
The match referred to as a “turn-up for the books” is always great fun. Unpredictability makes sport. Without it, there is no sport at all.
France’s victory in the first Test in New Zealand was unpredictable. There was a certain gripping quality about Scotland’s 9-6 victory over Australia, one of the greatest defensive efforts in Test history. Then Northampton Saints beat the reigning champions Munster 31-27 in the first round of the Heineken Cup.
Choice
That is a long list of great matches in 2009 but yet not all of them, which suggests that pessimism about the state of the game is unfounded.
Choosing is not easy, but we have chosen a match which started in uncertainty, was of high quality throughout and ended thrillingly – the second Test between South Africa and the British & Irish Lions.
