injuryupdate
30-11-2003, 07:48 PM
In one of the all-time great sporting contests, England narrowly outlasted Australia in the final of the Rugby World Cup in a match that would have surpassed the wildest dreams of tournament organisers. Fortunately it appears that the best team won the tournament, or in fact, that two very evenly matched teams were separated in the end only by a champion kicker. It may have been a matter of millimetres preventing a controversial refereeing decision or injury from having a major influence on the result. The injury that went closest to deciding the game but did not was when Jonny Wilkinson went down with an apparent shoulder problem late in the first half. The fact that he got back up probably saved the game for England. Maybe England also benefited from all of the time rival pivot Stephen Larkham spent in the blood-bin with a facial laceration. An Australian player suffered the most serious injury of the tournament with Ben Darwin being millimetres away from quadriplegia in the semi-final due to a severe cervical disc prolapse. The beaten semi-finalists lost key players during the tournament with New Zealand in the end badly missing star centre Tama Umaga (posterior cruciate knee strain) whilst France lost Olivier Brouzet with a recurrent shoulder injury. The chances of South Africa and Ireland creating an upset in the Quater Finals were decreased with Denis Hickie (Ireland, ruptured achilles tendon) and Joe van Niekerk (South Africa, ruptured ACL) both ruled out for six months from the final pool round. Click to see injury summaries in our rugby section.