South Africa’s Springboks defeated New Zealand 12-11 in the final of the 2023 Rugby World Cup to win their second consecutive world title on Saturday night at the Stade de France in Paris.

Before the halftime break, New Zealand’s Sam Cane was shown the red card after the referee considered his dangerous challenge on Jesse Kriel to be of high degree. It was the first-ever red card in a Rugby World Cup final.

With one man down, the first half ended with New Zealand being 12-6 behind their South African counterparts as they failed to pull the scores back.

However, New Zealand returned to the second half rejuvenated and scored five tries to reduce the deficit to only one point. South Africa managed to escape a late scare from the New Zealanders to win a record fourth Rugby World Cup title.

To witness the triumph of the 2019 champions again were Tennis legends Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, who was rocking his Springboks jersey. Federer’s mom is from South Africa.  

Also in attendance for the grand finale of the Rugby’s biggest event were South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the host nation, France’s President Emmanuel Macron.