Man Behind the Match: Rob Andrew and the 1995 Rugby World Cup Quarter-Final
In the cauldron of Newlands they would face the foe that had denied them at Twickenham four years before – Australia. It would go to the wire and beyond, a rare extra time denouement in the dying embers of the amateur era decided by, at the time, a unique moment of ice-cool inspiration from England fly-half Rob Andrew; a winner with the last kick of the game.
At the time it was an unprecedented happening, no World Cup match had been won with such a move up until that point. A fortnight later it was overtaken by Joel Stransky’s intervention in the final for the Springboks against the All Blacks, again in extra time.
It remained the most magical of World Cup moments for England fans but was again usurped in 2003 by Wilkinson, but what can’t be denied is the boost it gave England which led to a string of victories over an opponent which had been stubbornly difficult to beat for more than a decade. Jonah Lomu et al were to overshadow that achievement in the semi-final but in terms of Anglo-Australian rivalry it was a pivotal moment. The balance of power had shifted.
Martin Bayfield was in the second row alongside Martin Johnson that day: “I won my second cap in 1991 on the summer tour of Australia and we were heavily beaten.
“It was a weird one, there was plenty of experience in the team but we came into it with all the usual stuff about how Michael Lynagh was going to kick us out. We had had unconvincing wins against Samoa and Italy in the pool stage. We were not playing well, but had worked out good tactics.
“The atmosphere was phenomenal and I was pretty confident about our chances, even though I was up against John Eales and knew I was not going to have a pleasant afternoon!
“Tim Horan was coming back from an horrific knee injury. They were a useful team, a good team, but we knew we could win if we got our tactics right.”
Staggeringly, and in sharp contrast to the professional era when the top teams play each other virtually every year, there had not been a rugby equivalent of the Ashes since that 1991 World Cup final. It was a very long time between drinks, was there a raging thirst in the England camp for revenge?
Rory Underwood had seen it all before, 11 years an international and in his third World Cup. England’s record try scorer says that more important than any grudge was the acknowledgment that there was an error to be put right.
At Twickenham in 1991 England had surprised everyone by wanting to throw the ball around liberally in a curious change of strategy from that which had been so successful. In Cape Town no such abandon would be employed. But surely those four long years of waiting to take on the world champions bred a sense for retribution?
“It was for a few people but there had been a change of personnel since the 1991 final, and a change of tactics,” says Underwood. “Back then we had played a more open style. Four years is a long time and revenge was not top of our agenda. We were concentrating on playing the reigning world champions.
“We were a solid, mature side who had learned lessons from 1991. We had won back-to-back Grand Slams and just come off another one in 1995, all involving the core of that team. We felt like a very mature, strong side.”
The England pack was chock-full of men who had either already stated a claim to being the best their country had produced in their position or would go on to achieve greatness – a beguiling mix of personalities from Brian Moore and Jason Leonard up front to Johnson in the engine room to Ben Clarke and Dean Richards in the back row. It was a forward unit at the top of its game and quickly went about asserting itself, gaining the upper hand in the opening 40 minutes. Armed with some privileged knowledge…
“It was a bizarre start and the funny thing was our sports psychologist, Austin Swain, had given us the inside track,” reveals Bayfield. “Austin was given the task of trying to watch Australia’s last training session and arrived early; he got talking to the groundsman, who thought he was an Aussie `back-packer`…the Wallabies then thought he was the groundsman’s mate and allowed him to watch the entire Australian training session and make notes for us!
“We had a good back-line and there were plenty of forwards doing good things – Ben Clarke, Tim Rodber and Deano (Dean Richards). It was all going very well.”
Underwood and his brother Tony flanked a back-line of England luminaries in Andrew, Will Carling and Jeremy Guscott. They would need all their experience on this day at Newlands.
“Rob and Dewi Morris were in their prime, controlling the game,” says Underwood. “I have known Rob since I was 11, he was always very composed. I played with him so many times and he never seemed to lose his cool. Will was the captain alongside him and I think the four of us at 10, 11, 12 and 13 must hold the record for most Test appearances in those positions together – we played so many times.
“It felt a bit like a club side, we only had eight to 10 games a year and all we had outside matches and tournaments were the odd training session here and there, a Monday night every month in between the autumn internationals and the Five Nations for instance, but we knew each other so well.
“We had that solid core controlling and running the game, people like Brian Moore and Dean Richards. I think in the last eight or so years it’s been frustrating because England have not had that. All good sides have that element to them.”
Lynagh and Andrew were among a clutch of international points-scoring superstars at the time and each knocked over two penalties in the first half. The chances were rare but the turning point came when Tony Underwood set off on a dash to the corner. Bayfield adds: “The ball was shifted quickly and I remember seeing Tony nearly getting collared and Jerry Guscott was coasting up the middle, just in case he was needed. It was the first moment in that World Cup when we had put together something.”
Andrew converted the try to give England a 13-6 advantage at the break with the England fans loudly acclaiming the crucial score as the players left the field.
Australia would respond, but no-one seemed prepared for just how swift the response was. Within a minute of the restart Damian Smith claimed the ball and touched down for the Wallabies. Lynagh was Lynagh and the conversion was a given, the scores were level and England were deflated…or were they?
“Australia did what came natural to them,” says Bayfield. “They had probably all played Aussie Rules at some point and were experts at the high ball, with the ability to climb above a player – they are masters of that. But our response after that was superb – we didn’t buckle.
“There was no sense of panic; when you looked around at the huge experience we had in that team. No-one panicked.”
A gripping struggle then ensued with Eales marshalling his troops in typical fashion against England’s juggernaut pack with Lynagh and Andrew keeping the scoreboard ticking over, kick for kick.
Referee David Bishop blew for time, it was 22-all and too close to call.
Extra time developed into a highly physical game of chess, no-one wanted to take the risk that could lead to failure. It all came down to a well-executed set-piece and a masterful strike at goal.
“Mike Catt made a terrific touch-finder, knocking it right up to the Australian 10-metre line,” remembers Underwood. “There was no specific call, but everyone was thinking the same thing. When Jonny Wilkinson kicked his drop-goal in 2003 it was set up, this was all of us working together knowing what we had to do”.
Bayfield jokes: “That lineout was one of the few I actually won that day! I remember ‘Mooro’ (Brian Moore) looking at me as if to say: ‘Don’t you dare drop that ball’.”
Bayfield did the job and England powered up field with a massive co-ordinated effort in the maul after almost 100 minutes of sustained and sapping play. Morris called for the ball and propelled back to Andrew in the pocket, fully 45 metres out.
“We managed to scramble it back and Rob just belted it,” adds Bayfield. “He was in prime form and it was never in doubt. He had started that season against Romania with a 100 per cent record with his kicks and gone through the Grand Slam.”
The ball drifted towards the posts, hanging in the air. Lynagh and his team-mates looked back anxiously and saw their grip on the Webb Ellis Trophy being relinquished with every revolution of the oval. For the green and gold despair, for the red rose ecstacy. England had never beaten the Wallabies outside of Twickenham before; it was a moment of history achieved in the most dramatic style.
England coach Jack Rowell said at the time that he thought people back home must have ‘jumped 10 feet’. He wasn’t far wrong and in itself that kick, ironically from a player that Rowell had for many seasons plotted against at club level, was vindication for the much-criticised former Bath coach.
“That 1995 World Cup was such a great experience,” reflects Underwood. “With us coming through to the semi-finals and all the emotion surrounding South Africa winning.
“But winning that quarter-final, well, it was such a massive high. There is such a difference between winning in the last minute of a game and any other way. It’s a mental thing as it’s so close and then a minute later you have done it – it’s huge. I’ve often thought about whether we could have done anything to make it easier and I don’t think so. We did all we could have done.”
There is certainly little more Andrew could have contributed. Pin-point kicking from hand and tee producing 20 of the 25 points, a calming influence in the eye of the storm and the crowning glory of that drop-goal; for his team-mates he was the fulcrum of the effort.
Bayfield says: “Dewi was buzzing around all over the place, Rob was fairly calm, Will (Carling) was fairly calm, Jerry was Jerry, Rory had seen it all before, Tony was similar to his brother and Catty was unflappable.
“I’ll always remember the team’s performance in the 1991 quarter-final v France but, as an individual performance, Rob’s has to be right up there.”
