England wins Rugby World Cup at last

England has seized the Rugby World Cup -- the first time in five contests that the trophy has gone to a Northern Hemisphere nation.

Australian's worst fears happened when they woke on Saturday morning to find it was raining in Sydney. This did not augur well for the Wallabies who have had some significant thrashings on rain sodden tracks in the last five years. Sure enough it kept raining and the Wallabies lost the William Webb Ellis Cup to England by 20-17 after 20 minutes of extra time -- the win being sealed by a highly predictable Jonny Wilkinson field goal on the stroke of one minute to go and after 99 minutes of grippingly competitive rugby football.

England deserved to win -- and not just because they had not won a major football tournament on the world scene since 1966 -- but because for the last three years they have shown a totally committed approach to professional rugby and developed a game through coach Clive Woodward that could be adapted to any conditions, any opposition and as last night showed any occasion. In 2003 they have played 19 Test matches and only lost one -- to France on 30th August when a second string team played a World Cup warm-up game.

The "men in white" from the forward pack dominated the game with solid scrums that were wheeled, shoved and outsmarted the gold jerseys of the Wallabies. If the scrum was good the lineout was better and Martin Johnson and company stole a massive six lineouts from the Australians throw in.

The man of the match for mine was Wilkinson for apart from his kicking his general play set up forward thrusts for the England back line with Will Greenwood and Mike Tindall gaining ground on many occasions. This was only possible because of Wilkinson's distribution skills. As if there is no part of his game that has a weakness the tackling by Jonny was devastating especially one big hit on his opposite number at the time Mat Giteau. Wallaby fly half Stephen Larkham copped an accidental boot to the mouth and seemed inconvenienced for the rest of the game. However this was after his setting up the "play of the game" with a perfectly judged cross kick in the seventh minute for Tuquiri to score - out jumping the diminutive Robinson in the corner.

The disappointment for Australia was rugby league convert Wendell Sailor for so much was expected of him. His defense was poor, handling bad and positional play shocking. Roff should have replaced Sailor well before the 70th minute when the switch occurred.

The match was played before a capacity crowd of 82,950 that included Prince Harry of England who watched most of England's matches in this tournament.

Sydney showed it can stage an event as well as put on top fireworks displays. The mood around the city yesterday was being likened to the Olympic Games of 200n with all businesses around the city/harbor area putting on a special mood for the day.

As the cliche goes "rugby was the winner" and with 42 days of wonderful competition the Australian public has been introduced to the game they "play in heaven" that can no longer be seen as just game for the wealthy well educated private school elite. It is now a game for the people and the people have responded.

Bring on France the host in 2007.