New Zealand v South Africa LIVE: Rugby World Cup final score and result as Springboks beat All Blacks in Paris

It’s absolutely pouring down in Paris for this Rugby World Cup 2023 final. That should make things interesting as the ball gets wetter and the pitch starts to degrade as the game goes on.

This is the 10th match played at the Stade de France in this tournament with six of those games taking place over the last couple of weeks.

The conditions may yet play theri part in deciding which team lifts the trophy later tonight.

New Zealand and South Africa have won every rugby World Cup since England’s famous victory, off the boot of Jonny Wilkinson, in 2003.

Either All Blacks captain, Sam Kane, or Springboks skipper, Siya Kolisi, will hold the Webb Ellis Cup aloft marking the fourth time one of these two nations has been crowned the best in the world.

No team has achieved that before at the Rugby World Cup. History awaits for one of the sides but who?

It’s the game that players don’t want to play, fans don’t want to watch and the media don’t want to cover. All of which begs the question, why does the Rugby World Cup third/fourth place play-off still exist? Answers on a postcard please.

Actually, the answer is fairly simple, of course. It follows the old adage that when you’re not sure why something counter-intuitive is happening in sport, the reason is always the same. Money.

World Rugby and its sponsors will undoubtedly make a bit more cheddar from England facing Argentina on Friday evening at relatively little expense, although it remains to be seen how many of the Stade de France’s 80,000 seats are filled, let alone what sort of atmosphere those in attendance create. You suspect it might not quite reach the level of fan delirium that some of the other instant classics at the Paris stadium have generated during this tournament.

If fortune does indeed favour the brave, then South Africa should triumph in the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday evening. For the third time in two months, they have opted for the controversial 7-1 split of forwards to backs on their bench and, in the process, have taken a huge gamble in the biggest game on the calendar.

For the uninitiated, rugby teams almost always opt for a 5-3 or 6-2 split among their replacements. The laws of the international game dictate that you must have three front-row specialists (hookers and props, who count among the forwards) on your bench, and then teams will usually have a roughly even division of forwards and backs for the remaining five slots to ensure adequate cover for all position.

Yet for the third time in the last two months, the Springboks have boldly opted for just one lone back – Willie Le Roux in this instance – among their subs. On the previous two occasions, there has been no damage done. The final World Cup warm-up match saw them hand New Zealand a record 35-7 defeat at Twickenham and although they lost a hard-fought pool match to Ireland, the bench split had no negative impact on the result.

Up in the coaches’ box at Ellis Park, Ian Foster exhaled deeply. It was August of last year, and the All Blacks head coach’s job had been hanging in the balance, a run of five defeats in six matches putting Foster in the firing line. The prognosis looked grim, with the grand old home of South African rugby packed to the rafters with 62,000 Springbok fans who would have loved nothing more than for their side to unseat the coach of their great rival.

But Foster’s team saved him, shocking South Africa 35-23 to bring their coach back from the brink. Only New Zealand and Foster himself will know truly how close he was to losing his job, but there is every possibility that defeat in Johannesburg would have spelled a premature end to Foster’s tenure. The players knew what it meant. “We were playing for our coach’s job,” scrum half Aaron Smith admitted afterwards.

Little more than a year later, and Foster is ready to lead New Zealand into a final; there is every chance that on Saturday night, he’ll be a World Cup winner. Such a tag would normally ensure a status as something of a national hero – Foster’s predecessors Graham Henry and Steve Hansen both have knighthoods.

Reigning champions South Africa take on fellow three-time winners New Zealand in Saturday’s Rugby World Cup final.

Here, we pick team from the best performing players of the 2023 tournament.

New Zealand coach Ian Foster has revealed that he feels a couple of subtle tweaks to his squad for Saturday’s Rugby World Cup final will be enough to match South Africa’s “bomb squad”.

The Springboks have loaded up on bench forward might for the showpiece Paris decider, including seven pack replacements in their 23.

The seven/one bench split was a gambit first employed in South Africa’s strong warm-up win over New Zealand at Twickenham in August, with the replacement pack brought on together and immediately win a scrum penalty.

But rather than matching their opponents and including extra forwards among their bench eight, the All Blacks have kept faith with a traditional five/three combination.

South Africa have been urged to inspire the next generation of Siya Kolisis by claiming World Cup bragging rights in rugby’s greatest rivalry.

Each side has lifted the Webb Ellis Trophy on three previous occasions heading into Saturday’s final at the Stade de France, ensuring one of them will be crowned the most successful nation in the tournament’s history.

For the Springboks it is the opportunity to continue bringing together the country’s disparate communities, a motivation Kolisi insists provides the ‘why’ for the defence of their title.