McCaw may face World Cup final ban

The players have finished their pre-match warm-ups out on the pitch, and head in for their team-talks. I’ve seen this movie before and it’s bloody frightful.

The South Africa had coach, Heyneke Meyer, said he was proud of the way his players had responded after the opening weekend defeat to Japan had led to widespread condemnation at home.

South Africa’s captain Fourie du Preez said: “We’re disappointed”.

Meanwhile All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said the leadership of captain Richie McCaw and his All Blacks lieutenants, four of them with more than 100 caps, saw New Zealand through to their fourth Rugby World Cup final.

“Yeah it is worrying”, said Hansen of New Zealand handing South Africa scoring chances from the tee. “If we get the job done I’ll take any scar that comes along with it”. No team has ever won it three times.

“Mentally, it’s very, very tough”, to regroup after losing a semifinal, he said. As for the third-place game, “It does not mean anything to me, it’s like kissing your sister”.

But rugby-mad New Zealand faces a nervous wait to see whether McCaw will be cited for his contact on Francois Louw after he felled the Springboks flanker early in the match.

“If you look at the first half, our indiscipline was keeping South Africa in the game (but) we held our composure well and the points came”.

With one more Test to play for the All Blacks, more praise has been showered on the two long-encrusted jewels in their crown – Richie McCaw and Dan Carter.

New Zealand has dominated possession and territory in wet conditions, but has been dominated at the breakdown. “Our indiscipline let us down in the first half and we were under the pump, but the difference in the end was the couple of opportunities we turned into tries”.

Pollard has been successful with all of his penalties attempts.

The All Blacks will play the victor of tomorrow morning’s second semi final between Australia and Argentina in next Sunday morning’s final.

There’s been hardly a spot of rain so far this tournament, which has been played in glorious autumn weather – by British standards, anyway.