This weekend, the Rugby World Cup comes to an end with the final match early Sunday morning New Zealand time. Probably most people living in New Zealand know that the All Blacks are playing the Australian Wallabies in the final. The kick-off is at 5am our time. It will probably be a close game because so far this year, they have each won a game against the other team. On August 9th, the Wallabies beat the All Blacks, 27 to 19, in Sydney, but 6 days later, the All Blacks defeated the Wallabies, 41 – 13, in Auckland.
In the first semi-final of the World Cup, the All Blacks defeated the South African Springboks by 20 points to 18. In the second semi-final, the Argentinian Pumas were defeated by the Wallabies, 29 – 15. Many sports commentators then wrote about the strength of the southern hemisphere rugby teams. However, rugby is a winter game and the southern hemisphere winter has only recently finished. This gave southern hemisphere players an advantage over players from England and other northern hemisphere countries.
The Rugby World Cup competition began in 1987. It was hosted by both Australia and New Zealand. The All Blacks won that time and again in 2011. Australia has also won the cup twice. The team which wins on Sunday morning gets the cup and keeps it for 4 years.
Listen to more about Rugby World Cup
Vocabulary
commentator – a journalist who writes about sport
Note the verbs: X won, X defeated Y/ Y were defeated by X, X beat Y / Y were beaten by X