France outmuscled and outflanked by England
France borrowed from England in search of elusive World Cup glory but would have been better inspired sticking to their own values of flamboyance and unpredictability.
The tournament hosts thought muscle and discipline might help them emulate England, who relied on those things to rule the world four years ago, but were found wanting against their old rivals.
Facing England for a place in the final on Saturday at the Stade de France, the hosts were short of inspiration and never found the sparkle they needed to destabilise the defending champions who edged home 14-9.
The image of massive lock Sebastien Chabal halted in his tracks three metres away from England's tryline just minutes before Jonny Wilkinson turned the game around with a penalty and a drop goal provided a symbol for a nail-biting affair.
Again, France, who had recovered from a poor start to the tournament to knock out favourites New Zealand in the quarter-finals, failed to back up a great performance.
"We ran out of gas," said scrumhalf Jean-Baptiste Elissalde. "The match against the All Blacks had cost us a lot of energy and we suffered, notably in the rucks. We have the bitter feeling we're leaving the business unfinished."
France coach Bernard Laporte pointed out that an intense if not scintillating showdown had been evenly balanced until Wilkinson's composure made the difference.
"Semi-finals always come down to little things," Laporte said after a match France would probably have won if wing Vincent Clerc, who seemed certain to score in the left-hand corner in the 68th minute, had not been brought down by an ankle-tap tackle by substitute flanker Joe Worsley.
"That one came down to nothing," added Laporte, who will leave coaching after the tournament to become his country's junior minister for sport.
Nothing new
Coming close is nothing new to France, who lost the 1987 and 1999 World Cup finals after memorable semi-final wins over Australia and New Zealand respectively before being stopped by England in the last four in 2003, with Wilkinson scoring all his side's points.
Laporte, whose men had prepared for this World Cup like never before, lifting weights for months in their state-of-the-art national rugby centre outside Paris, must now face criticism of his tactics.
Damien Traille, regarded as one of the game's finest centres, started his second match for France at fullback and looked ill at ease, offering wing Josh Lewsey the fastest try in World Cup semi-final history with a blunder after just two minutes.
Young Lionel Beauxis, his team's number three flyhalf before the tournament, looked sluggish and clumsy with his place kicking until being showed by his opposite number, the merciless Wilkinson, how games are won.
"This World Cup is not a success, it's obvious," admitted Laporte, whose team had started the tournament with an upset loss to Argentina but bounced back before falling to opponents with their own revival to complete.
The expectations in France were immense, a vast majority having predicted another triumph after their soccer team lifted the World Cup on home soil nine years ago.
"We wanted to be world champions and we will not be," Laporte said.
"It's a failure but I don't think this wastes it all. It's a pity because that team had desire, heart and soul."
Ruthless Springboks turn Puma errors into points
South Africa delivered a ruthless masterclass in rugby opportunism on Sunday when they seized on a series of Argentine errors to earn a return to the World Cup final they last graced on home soil 12 years ago.
The Springboks had to absorb long spells of Argentina pressure but when the Pumas erred, which they did far too often to have any realistic hope of victory, the favourites punished them in devastating fashion.
South Africa scored four tries, all converted and all from Argentine possession as their wise heads kept control while the men in blue and white fluffed their lines on the biggest stage they had ever appeared on.
The tone was set in the first five minutes when Argentina had started the better and were making good ground into their opponents' half.
However, Felipe Contepomi's pass was intercepted by livewire scrumhalf Fourie Du Preez for a 70-metre score and the die was cast.
Argentina's high kick-and-chase game that had served them so well earlier in the tournament had been replaced by a more adventurous passing game but it was rugby on the edge and too often they fell on the wrong side.
The Pumas did force their way back into contention at 10-6 down after half an hour only for Gonzalo Longo to allow Schalk Burger to rip the ball from his arms to set up a counter-attack that led to the first of Bryan Habana's two tries.
Dream over
Moments before halftime the dream was effectively over when two of Argentina's star performers of the tournament combined to gift a third score.
Scrumhalf Agustin Pichot, hurried and inaccurate in much of his work, threw a pass to the feet of Juan Martin Hernandez and the flyhalf, the stand-out player in their unprecedented march to the last four, failed to grasp it and succeeded only in kicking the ball to Francois Steyn.
The 20-year-old year old centre reacted instantly to fling a 25-metre pass wide and within the blink of an eye Danie Rossouw was over the line.
South Africa, who allowed Fiji to come back from 20-6 down in the quarter-finals after being sucked into a sevens-style contest, made no such mistake this time and played a sensible, low-risk game that forced the Pumas into ever more ambitious tactics.
The Puma error count grew in the second half while they desperately tried to find a way to build on Manuel Contepomi's try and Percy Montgomery, calmness personified, continued to land his kicks, eventually ending up with three penalties and four conversions to his name.
The last of those came in the final minutes after Hernandez completed a horribly anti-climatic personal night by flinging a pass into the arms of Habana, who raced 80 metres for his record-equalling eighth try of the tournament.
Feeds