'03 Untold | The inside story of the 2003 Rugby World Cup final
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Twenty years on from that historic day in Sydney, the players at the heart of the action open up on what it was like to play their part.
Jason Robinson, Richard Hill, Trevor Woodman, Jason Leonard & Lewis Moody give their perspective on a special achievement.
#Rugby #England
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Greatest England team in history. We must get back there.
Nah you guys are good coming from a kiwi but Johnny was heaven sent could do it all tackle like a mf
Most memorable part for me was the look on the Aussie PMs face during the award ceremony .
Irishman here..Martin Johnson, now there's a man you'd follow into battle. Nice group of players and richly deserved.
THe Northern Hemisphere need to get their act together because we need theRWC up here.
That was epic, almost cinematic in its delivery. Still one of the great games. All the best from New Zealand.
Just made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up & gave me goosebumps all over. What a team. What amazing memories. 20 years where has it gone. 🏴🏴🏴
took years off my life!
The best sporting moment in my life time that inspired me to play and learn so much about myself and become the man I am today. It was more than just winning a game, and these men and this team created something that will live on.
It brings a tear to my eye every time!
It brings tears to my eyes I was there even though I was not born I was in the Belly of my mother and she was there
It's one of those scenarios where you can remember where you were and what you did on that day and time.
Absolutely loved this film and it brought back so many memories and goosebumps.
Sat on the edge of my bed with my six month old daughter next to me, bad dad.. I jumped she flew off the bed but I did catch her, them I screamed the house down
Fantastic memories of fantastic team
Loved to hear their insights into their training for these big moments and laughed when they talked about them all being out of position after the drop goal! What an amazing group they were, feel privileged to have witnessed history, Thanks for the memories boys!
What a documentary!
so nice to see people not staring at their phones
Hard to believe 20 years ago now!!!!!
And who cant forget Ben Kay knocking on 1 foot from the try line.......
What a tournament.
What a final.
Made alot of people very happy :)
Well done lads.
Only just realised I have lived long enough to have seen us win two world cups , 1966 & 2003. Hope my grandsons will be able to say the same.
Don’t forget the cricket 😉
One day, hopefully many years from now, I'll be lying on my death bed wondering by how many years the stress of watching this final has shortened my life. Every now and then I wake up in a cold sweat imagining what would have happened if Jason Robinson hadn't made that finger tip tackle on Lote Tuqiri in the second half, when he looked to be away.
What a bunch of absolute legends
That kick still brings a tear to my eye today .
Glory days of English rugby. Privileged to have watched it live (on a pub TV🙂), lost my voice for 2 days and have happy memories that I will never forget. Proudly 🏴🏴🏴!
I lived in Sydney then, as an Englishman. I was lucky enough to get to every England game including the Final. It was almost never in doubt that we would win it, especially in light of the tearing apart of Australia and New Zealand down under the year apart. The closest we came to exiting was Wales in Brisbane - they were utterly brilliant, we all stood and applauded Shane Williams' opening try. It was never in doubt in the final, as hard as Watson tried. I was buying a pint at the back of the stand when Robinson went over. England reduced Australia to uncontested scrums three times, including the next World Cup - Australia couldn't compete in the front row and it's just unspeakable that Watson called those scrums for Australia. So many Wallabies - Flatley most but Gregan, Tuquiri, Harrison, Waugh, fronted up and competed as you'd always expect Wallabies to compete. But this was never in doubt. And the week after is the lost week of my life. On it for 7 days solid with so many friends and players. Unforgettable. Unmatchable. Thank You Sir Johnny. Thank all of you.
What a fabulous video, a real treat to watch, such an incredible group of players each and every one of them.....
It was the day before my 22nd birthday when this happened. Its almost half my lifetime ago now. And it remains the greatest sporting moment of my lifetime.
Brilliant!
Still can't believe no cameras caught Wilko practising his kicking in the break before extra time started!
This was not just a great game but a great tournament. However it probably was, the greatest RFU Final ever!
Can you imagine the RWC final, finishing after extra time, with so many of the starting 15 still being on the pitch at full time? 👍❤
Jonny Wilkinson was THE GUY back then the man carried England on his back.
As a maori from nz he is once in a lifetime so good
The only thing worse than South Africa's performance at that world cup was South African referee Andre Watson in that final. He did not help our image as a rugby nation with his handling of such a spectacle. England had that game locked up, but he was determined to keep hosts Australia in that one.
England have always been an overrated side though austrilia were consistently better throughout that world cup. All england had was 8 bully boys and Johnny 😂
@@morgandunn8163 You may or maybe not right, but the fact stands: Andre Watson stopped England from annihilating Australia like they did France the weekend before. England was peerless at this point. Not even the All Blacks would have beaten them in that final.
@@morgandunn8163
Overrated and yet won the World Cup 🤔
Geez, you Northern Hemisphere people still have something to whine about even after you win the Cup, probably why 2003 was your only taste of success as the North spends more time and money on whinging and moaning than they do trying to catch the South, only thing is, YOUS WILL NEVER CATCH THE SOUTH BOY!!
The Northern Hemisphere only World Cup title whereas the South have multiple winners who have lifted the cup on multiple occasions
Couldn’t agree more with your words of Andre Watson it was hard to watch when England clearly had that game won, he made it so obvious he wanted Australia to win!
2003 world cup rugby was awsome, the team superbe
England won the final on Australian soil with a referee who did absolutely everything he could to help Australia win. It was the most bent refereeing display in rugby history.
And England still won.
That England team would beat any team in rugby history. They’d find a way, they always found a way.
This is what the current England team need to learn how to do: stop playing to pre rehearsed systems; be fluid and just adapt to whatever is in front of them
Turn it up!
1. Neil Back kneed Stirling Mortlock in the face on the ground to take him out of the match. He got up with a massive shiner.)
2. Stephen Larkham was kicked in the face with studs and opened his face up. (Spent half the match after that in blood bin.)
Both of these incidences are Red card offenses. (Very clever cheating, especially the first one.)
England won, Australia lost because;
1. 'ESG Eddie' Jones picked inexperienced rugby league players over tested world cup winning veterans. (Rogers, Sailor, Tuquiri over the likes of Roff, Burke, Grey, Latham, Herbert)
2. Wet weather. England has far more experience and success in wet weather. Australia is usually terrible in wet weather.
The referee was the best in the world at that time.
@@chrishodgson2247
Excuses excuses excuses. A good rugby team can play well regardless of the conditions. If Australia are a “terrible” team in wet weather then they don’t deserve to be winners. Which they weren’t.
This 2003 team had the benefit of a steady, four year build up. The 2023 team had the complete opposite of that.
Still whinging even after the North solitary success, the South have always had the humble approach that you be grateful for the opportunity given, you prepare yourself to the utmost, and you give it your all on the pitch, get those facets right before you even think about being successful..
yeah, because the aussies never cheat. LOOOOOOL. @@chrishodgson2247
Amazing piece 👏🏼
One of the happiest moments of my very happy life....and I was watching from a sofa in Crawley. It was a magical moment and it still makes me emotional now. Thank you to England's heros.
Shame the whinging about the ref diminishing the classic of a game,best final ever in world cup history and im Aussie
It was great beating the 16 men of Australia.
Jason Robinson out of those players (I think) played in 2 Rugby World Cup Finals in 1995 & 2003 both against Australia aswell.
England v Aus previous final was in 1991. But Robbo did play in the 2007 final v SA, as did Catt, Wilko, Moody, Kay, Dallaglio, and Vickery
England shunt Australia back so fast they run over their own 9 - reset.
Australian loosehead dives at the floor - penalty Australia.
Even Paddy "I'm a Kiwi, honestly" O'Brian was never that useless.
I think the key bit is at 17:07, Back didn't try the long pass to JW (you never know, it might have worked) but took the short one to MJ to give a new ruck so Gobby Dawson could get up.
I was at the game at the end where Jonny made the drop goal. Just sayin’ 😊
And me!😂
Andre Watson's refereeing in that final was scandalous, i don't like to accuse officials of cheating however i find it difficult to come up with any other reasonable explanation for his refereeing on that day, thankfully England still found a way to win.
I often wonder whether Andre Watson has looked back at his performance and squirms. Such a good referee usually who bottled it because of the final. It was pointed out to be some years after that he pinged Trevor Woodman immediately the scrum went down but allowed the Aussie pack to reset through the whole game. He's also admitted himself that at the last ruck there were at least 3 Aussies offside which he failed to ping (and the question is whether he would have done had JW missed the nudge.. Thankfully for him, another South African surpassed his disgraceful performance when Craig Joubert prat paraded in the 2011 final disgracefully denying the French the cup
Where were you on that famous day in 2003?
I was there. Went out for 6 weeks with no tickets and managed to get tickets for all the games including the final. I was sat on the 22 right in line with Johnnys kick and i remember it took an age to go through but we still wasnt sure and then we looked left and saw the england fans behind the posts go ballistic and thats when we knew we had won the world cup. Tears, laughter, hugging, relief but sheer joy..
Watched the game in bed. Cried at the end
Hiding behind some electrical boxes at work with a tv someone else had smuggled in teaching all comers the little I know of rugby, including the person who'd smuggled in the tv when THE drop goal was building up! best day at work ever!!
Newcastle Rugby Club restaurant - with my entire family - what a fucking intense atmosphere, and one of the best days of my entire life ✊🏼
Kiwi here, I was playing a season of rugby in Ireland for Ballina, and watched the final with a couple of good mates in our team - a fellow Kiwi and a Welshman from Port Talbot. My Welsh buddy left the lounge in seething disgust at the final whistle. Personally I thoroughly enjoyed the final. It was a bona fide classic.
Agreed
My mum still has the recorded copy of the game on VHS and we'll never get rid of it. Shame about the referee, either the pressure got to him or something because the moment he saw momentum on Australia's side he just started giving penalties left, right and centre to the Aussies.
As mentioned in mist of these comments the ref nearly ruined it for us, thankfully that last drive before the drop just showed how much in control we were
The ref had a stinker in that game! I'd even go so far as to say he'd been nobbled so that the Ozzies stayed in the game?
So dominant in the scrum yet Watson kept penalising us! The final ruck was ridiculous with Aus infringing three times and he didn’t give a pen! In a 2015 interview, he stated he “dreaded the idea of giving a penalty against Aus in their back yard! Wilkinson saved me from doing so!” Nine bob note comes to mind! Another irritation was having Taylor (Wal) on ITV and Robertson (Sco) on 5Live and their biased ramblings! Doesn’t appear to have been a English commentator anywhere who commentated on this final! Thankfully Taylor was demoted to ITV4 commentaries in 2007 and then was moved on thereafter.
The problem with the win was there was no plan for after, it was the start of a downward spiral for England.
England are ace
Instead of this why dont you do one on why we have not won another one in 22 years ?
The most unforgettable WC 😂
It’s giving Tottenham 😅
🥹🏴
Is this going to be England's (football) world cup reminiscensing for decades to come - dining out on one past glory.... forever?
Well its the 20 year anniversary so i'd say well worth commemorating.
Good
All the other Six Nations sides would love a world Cup win to remember! Most of them would like a final appearance to remember. Great against a cheating, one sided referee too. England's best side ever 🏴.
Who are you
Great shame the RFU have continued to blow the legacy of this team every year since.
England reminiscing on 03 😂😂😂. Bokke we are your cryptonite 😂😂😂😂
Even though we beat you 25-6 in the 2003 world cup
@garyambrosini1427 once we beat you twice in a final an once in a semi . 😄 🤣 😂 😆
Bless, RFU has to drag out 21 year old material to try and relive the one moment of glory
Still bitter are you
They won the World Cup, they are entitled to mark the 20 year anniversary. That was a brilliant England team who had beaten the best of the Southern Hemisphere consistently over the 2000-2003 period and actually played decent rugby. From an Irishman btw
Oh come on, you were like that when Ireland won it…
And when Ireland got to the quartet-finals of Italia 90 with a lil help from your friends.
❤
Not enough criticism of Watson!!!
He lost the plot in the second half and actually started to appear almost bent!
The worst one of the lot for me was the final play and his comments years afterwards.
The Aussies came offside at the breakdown, he didn’t even call it!
He admitted they were offside and his first thought was he would have to give a last minute penalty against the home nation and he really didn’t want to.
So he was just glad to see Jonny kick a drop goal.
That’s ridiculous officiating.
The ref clearly did not want it to be a drubbing, and decided to get Australia back in the game.