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Okay, here we go. The Rugby World Cup final is upon us. I'm here to give a quick preview and at the end of this video I will also be predicting who I think is going to be the winner. I'm putting my neck on the line. I'm gonna lock in my pick. I said I'm putting my neck on the line. That's, that's not the case because if that was the case, I'd be, I'd be headless right now because I've made a number of, I mean everyone must have made some incorrect predictions. Because this World Cup has been tight. This World Cup has been great. And this World Cup has led to the inevitability of South Africa and New Zealand making the final. This could be applied to either of these two teams, and it will be applied to one of these two teams whoever wins the World Cup. Let's do a quick preview on it then. If you don't know, my name is TJ. I'm the guy behind Rugby Muscle. We do strength and conditioning for rugby players. Mostly amateurs because that's who 99. 99 percent of the rugby playing population are. If you're interested in coaching, consulting, or programming, I'll put it all in the links. Uh, I'll put it, the links, in the description below. So, uh, as we get into this preview, I wanted to quickly discuss, before I go into the teams, I wanted to discuss, like, what this means, uh, for both teams. First and foremost, like, I think as far as the game that is actually happening tonight, we've got a third and fourth place playoff, or a bronze medal match as they're now calling it. I'm assuming that you don't care about this match, right? I'm assuming that you think, alright, it's alright for whoever wins, but it's not a big deal. Should be some fun, but I think, like, if you ask the majority of the squad, they're probably, or both squads, in that match they'd probably both rather go home. That shows to me that this draw has been nothing but positive. A lot of people have complained about this draw, and I understand it, but once you see how it's turned out, it has turned out to be, it has given us probably the best World Cup ever, and one of the best ways the World Cup could have actually realized itself. Right, we've had phenomenal quarterfinals, we've had great group stages with Jeopardy almost every single week, which, is as good as it gets for the state of the rugby, um, world, you know, with it being fairly lopsided with us, I have in a few like clear tears between different rugby player nations. So the fact that we haven't, we've had barely any weekends where it's been all duds. It's been pretty entertaining, basically every single weekend and some weekends. If you think of the first two that Ireland South Africa game in the group stage in the France, New Zealand game in the group stage. Then we roll into the last the last weekend and we roll into the quarterfinals and the semifinals. It's been a fantastic World Cup and I don't and the fact that no one is that worried about this third and fourth place bluff just goes to show if Ireland. All France had to be knocked out there. I don't think that they would be feeling any better than being knocked out in the quarterfinals. Now I could be saying that because there's some unconscious bias here from an English perspective to say that we got to the semifinal, but I don't think so. And even if England had pulled out that win against South Africa last week, you couldn't say these guys didn't earn it. Likewise, you can't say that, well. I neither of these sites. I mean South Africa have absolutely earned their way To this final and New Zealand obviously likewise, they've both gone through completely different paths. So I Think for South Africa what this means this will be there They'll do the double so they'll do back to back World Cups. The only other team to do that obviously New Zealand It makes whoever wins. This has won will be the winningest nation ever in World Cup history, which is great. This gives them, you know, a little bit more of a step above. There's a little bit more than just another World Cup. This is who is going to be the best in World Cup history. And you've almost got right the best rugby playing nation as far as Just consistency goes in New Zealand. They have been the last 2030 years ever since I've been involved in rugby. They have been the nation and in South Africa have always been the closest. But when you look at World Cups, they've always been there when it matters. So it's the best rugby World Cup playing nation against maybe the best rugby nation. Who is going to win? I mean, we'll get into it. I'll get my preview isn't I'm not going to give my prediction until right at the end. So, um, I do think that this means a lot to both nations. I think that New Zealand, this sort of turns around what has been, uh, one of the worst four years of such a dominant side, which is crazy because they've still been so dominant. In fact, if we skip ahead a few slides, like it's easy to forget when we look at rugby championships. Like I say, this has been the least successful four years of their cycle. They've won all four rugby championships. They've still won consistently, but they have also first ever series loss. First ever group stage loss. Um, I mean, home series loss to Ireland, that is. Um, first ever back to back losses in a northern hemisphere tour, I believe. I might just be making that up. I believe. Um. Ian Foster come in within a hares, uh, width of being fired, apparently only be to be saved by the players who back him to the hilt, who also, um, you know, really respect him and like him. And, and apparently yeah. Are the reason that he's still in. On the flip side of things, we've got, um, JBA and Raz Erasmus. Raz Erasmus, especially. From players that have played under him, he's very, uh, apparently he's quite hard to deal with as far as like, he demands so much, it's his way or the highway almost, and like, if you were him, why not? He's been so successful, he's such a great mind, he is an absolutely fantastic coach, but just saying what I've heard is that he Demands a lot and and a lot of former players, maybe even current players behind closed doors. Maybe don't approve of how he does things and he's not as loved where I mean, whereas on the flip side, right? Razzie is absolutely loved by the press in Foster. Obviously and Razzie loved by all of you South Africans that will be comment in below and watching this final all of the South African fans love Razzie. On the flip side of things, Fozzy has, he's a character, but you can see that he doesn't have the back end of the New Zealand population anywhere near as much. I mean, like I say, so much so that he almost got fired. Now, with that all being said, we have two teams that, I mean, and two approaches because of the coaching staff, um, that are completely different. Not just on winning. Rugby World Cup matches, but on rugby itself, right? You've got New Zealand here on the left who have basically gone This is my best 15. I'm gonna keep putting them out. I'm gonna get them on the field However, that is you know with Bowden Barrow at 15 Who is a 10 with Rikki who is a winger with Will Jordan on the wing who is a fullback? Doesn't matter we're gonna get out of Artie surveyor. Who's a 7 8 you know We don't care. We're getting all of our best players as best we can on the field. And then as they get tired, maybe we'll start to switch them out. You know, but a lot of them have been playing for ladies and we'll bring them in if we need to, if we need to change things up or if our players get tired or injured, maybe we'll make some substitutions. But as much as we can, we're going to try and play our brand of rugby. We're going to try and impose it on the opposition. We're going to do whatever we can to win that game in that light. Whereas you've got the South African approach, which is almost the opposite. We're going to blunt how the opposition wants to play and we're going to find a way to win around that. We're also not going to worry about our 15. We're going to worry about 23. Johnny number in his recent press. I mean all of the press conferences. He has in this world cup. He always says it's not about the 15 and a squad like the 15 players and then the eight guys come off the bench. It's a 23. We pick what is the best way to arrange our 23 to win games and obviously what they like is the bomb squad. They like having these guys coming off the bench and it's and it has worked time and time again. They've gone for the 7 1 split. This week, last week they had, uh, what was it? They had a seven, seven. They had four, four, three, no, five, three. They had a five, three split, a normal, um. Split for a bench, right? Whereas now they've gone 7 1. They've gone just Willie LaRue as their only back replacement. I always argue that Quagga Smith could easily play anywhere in the back line. If you've seen his sevens history, he'll be fine with that. He also mentioned that Chessling Colby can play nine. I absolutely believe that. I believe he's talented enough to play there. He's played 10 for Toulon or Toulouse previously. He absolutely has that ability and I think people don't think about this when you're looking at your just your starting team and you're looking at, um, you know, when teams get red cards or yellow cards and who's going to come in, like when Aaron Smith got yellow carded, Richie Mwanga went into nine and New Zealand played fine. I don't think it matters. As much, it's just how you're going to mitigate your risk. And, here in, um, Jak Nienaber explained that was, was super interesting. I, man, I really rate Jak Nienaber and Munster are going to be great to have him. Potentially the Springboks are going to miss him. Um, but it's going to be interesting, uh, to see if this pays off and what they do to mitigate it. Think about like this whole selection for South Africa is is crazy, right? You've got faster clerk at nine Who didn't even start the last two weeks? So he's coming off fresh and you think about how again these two teams have two different approaches They've also had two different lead ins to this final South Africa have had two One point games that they have overcome to get there. They you could either argue That they have actually you could argue both right? Both points are going to be true. They have put it all in the last two weeks and they have shown the raw. They've, they've been able to win, not necessarily ugly, but they've won really tight games when it's all on the line. They've, they've, they've got the job done. They know how to get the job done if it stays tight. At the same time, you've got to ask that question, how much has it taken out of this team? And. You know, they've, they've made a few changes here with, you know, like I say, Faf de Klerk. I guess Andre Pollard starting is another big change. And you could say they haven't changed, uh, You know, you could say they haven't changed Damian D'Alende and Jesse Krul. But the fact that those fellas barely touched the fucking ball last week shows that they're probably alright. Like, they didn't go through the grinder as much. And, you know, as far as the forwards go, They make those changes early. They brought Seah Khaleesi, their captain, off at 44 or 45 minutes last week. They continually change players in and out. They're probably gonna, they played Bongi Manambi for, uh, 80 minutes last week. If he plays 80 minutes again this game, he's gonna finish the game with, most likely, seven fresh forwards that have come off the bench to support him. So, he'll be alright. They'll be alright. That's where they're looking to win the game. Now, if you go... To, uh, New Zealand. Actually, one last thing, Oxon Chay is coming off the bench. It's huge. Probably the most, if not, ah, fuck it, certainly the most dominant scrummager of this World Cup. The fact that he comes on when everyone is a little bit more tired. He doesn't have to run around for 20, 30 minutes before he gets to first scrum. He goes straight in there, basically at scrum time. And, man, he, he just destroys. Now, he also, For the last two weeks has had the backing of, um, Why have I spaced on his name? Mr. Incredible. Um, what is his name? Vin, Vincent Cock. That's, that's who it is. Um, he didn't play in this game either, so I don't know why I've got that up. Um, he, he's not playing in this one. He's, uh, been injured from the England game. I think they'll miss him. I think that they, they miss him. Trevor Nkane is good. But he is no Vincent Koch. And actually, if you look at the games they lost, didn't they? When they lost to Ireland, I don't think they had Vincent Koch. When they beat France, they did. When they lost to New Zealand, as you'll see in the next, uh, image, they didn't have him either. My video cut out there. Um, yeah, I think he's on the right as far as he scrummages and supports the ox in what he does and holds strong And I think that this area is probably going to be the winning of the game Now the all blacks want to avoid that or they want to avoid that being the losing of the all blacks have is An absolute powerhouse starting pack in Tyrell Lomax, Cody Taylor, or starting front row and Ethan Degrew, those boys can push and those boys are the reason that New Zealand won the Rugby Championship almost out of cancer and dominated, um, both of their games, all of their games in basically in the Rugby Championship, um, and I think it will go, it will, time will tell if these If that front row can stay on the field and stay fresh for as long as possible and New Zealand can get out to a nice handy lead by the time they go, those guys go off and um, Tamate Williams comes on and Nepeolalala come on, New Zealand can and should win this game. If South Africa stay in it by the time the bomb squad comes on, I think you're going to see, what was it, 16 3 down? 16, six down or 13, three down, whatever it was, um, Ahead of, you know, with, with 15 minutes to go with a scrum on their own try line. South Africa go and win that game. You know, is it going to be one of those things like what it was last week? I think it can be. I think South Africa just need to stay in touch for as long as that game rolls on to then come back and win this. And I think this is where it's going to be won up front. I Feel like it was important to address the fact that we're looking at past history. I'm not sure how much this matters. This is the team that got pumped at Twickenham for the All Blacks. You can see that in spite of having a very similar back line, in fact, it's got the exact same back line, right? Um, yeah. Mawunga, Barrett, Ioane, Talaire, Jordan, Barrett, um, and Aaron Smith at nine. That's the, but where? I think South Africa don't have as much the edge over this pack. And I do think that I think yellow, uh, Tyrell Lomax went off early. Um, in the, in the Twickenham game. So did, uh, Ethan the Groot fairly early for, for an All Blacks sub. And I think that's where the, I mean, uh, that's where South Africa smashed it up front. And obviously they lost Bodum, Bodum Barrett. They lost the other Barrett. They lost Scott Barrett. In that game as well. So they're down to seven in the pack. And I just think that was where They got hose was up front and and one South African get on top of you up front. It doesn't matter How well you want to play out with the backs? That's they're gonna put the pressure on they're gonna get the points and they're gonna get the win So that's I think what it is. It's as simple as that. It might rain on Saturday night But I don't think that matters I even looked at like Yeah, like I say, previous history, I said this is the, the least successful New Zealand team in the last four years that just goes to show how dominant the All Blacks have been. Uh, as far as world rugby goes, uh, for the last couple decades, man, like for as long as rugby has been a professional sport, the, uh, the all blacks have been dominant and South Africa are the only other team really as far as rugby enthusiasm. And rugby playing nations right now and in the history of rugby that can challenge that In the future we can always and I think that's where The rugby world had hope with france and with ireland is these two nations specifically we're doing everything, right? You look at the club rugby in france now. It's growing. It's growing. They're getting bigger and bigger tv deals. They're getting You know, more and more quality teams and they're winning under 20s championships. They're winning big games. They're winning Six Nations, Ireland Almost the exact same. I think Ireland might have even, did they win this under 20s? No, they lost to, France won this one, but Ireland just as dominant. They won the Grand Slam I believe they're under 20s for the Six Nations. So Ireland doing everything right. You look at how Munster, Ulster and obviously Leinster and even Connacht Build up their team. They look at the the schools from Ireland Finally, you've got a to Northern Hemisphere countries England and England and Wales like England have gone way downhill as far as like I Think what they their potential could be Whereas I with Ireland and France you can see something going to the future but what you've got in New Zealand and South Africa is 20 plus years of dominance of Rugby being, Rugby Union being the number one sport now. I think this All Blacks winning another World Cup will go to some ways to keeping the interest in Rugby Union just above Rugby League. But I know for a fact that Rugby League is catching up. Um, I don't think rugby is ever going to drop in enthusiasm in South Africa. I feel it's much more part of their culture. But for South Africa, if they win, if they stay dominant, they're going to keep attracting the European nations to, um, have their players in their club sides, but also have their teams in that club competitions, as we've seen with the Heineken Cup and the, uh, URC. And I think that makes a big difference. And I think that helps South Africa as far as a rugby playing nation, because that gives them a lot more opportunity, right? Whereas if it was just their own domestic league, you see. like they'll just bugger off elsewhere for a bigger paycheck and, and then potentially even go and represent other countries as they have done in all other, like many other nations. Everyone's got South Africans in their team because South Africa produces so much talent and it's just got that much of a bigger population than New Zealand. Now we go back to this team, well, we go back to the starting teams and we go back to the 20 threes. Where is it going to be won and lost? I can't see anything other than the front row. I can see the only way that it might not be a front row is if and even then it's down to New Zealand's pack to hold South Africa away to to put enough pressure on them at lineout time but hold their own at scrum time to let their backs loose and if they do we could we can have a New Zealand runaway early on which I don't think South Africa will be able to reel them in if they get up by, you know, a couple, a good, more than two scores. That's when it becomes, that's when New Zealand become bullies and they become dominant and they just keep going and keep going and keep going. Like my last video, people got annoyed that I called South Africa bullies. They are, but bullying teams is great. That's what rugby is about. It's physical domination with a ball in your hand, you know. And you can bully them on the scoreboard, you can bully them up front, you can do loads of brutal things legally. I ain't got a problem with that. That's great. And that's, that's what South Africa needs to do. They need to bully New Zealand, whether that's over the first, uh, no. It's not going to be over the course of the first 20, 30 minutes. It's going to be, you know, what they did with England. They're staying in the fight. They're not, they're getting outgunned. And they're still, you know, getting, not necessarily dominated, but they're losing the collisions. They're losing the game. They're losing the momentum, but they're staying in the fight. And then that last 10 minutes, I was like, crap, man, England are going to lose. And I knew it. Because South Africa bullied their way to, uh, a victory in that semifinal. And I do, I think they're going to do it in this final. Here we go. I'm going to give, I'm going to pull this away. And I'm going to give my prediction now. Okay, so let's do it and give my prediction. Uh, this is this is basically a coin flip. All right, so whoever like whoever I pick against I know the fans of that team that I pick against are going to Comment below whether it's if I pick New Zealand I get the guys in the comments below saying you listen Listen tj. You're not listening to what we're saying about how dominant we are and how much Passion and how much we, as South Africans, as Springboks, we, we are stone cold killers when it comes to the game, right? We got, uh, we got Sia there. He leads the team. He is unbelievable. We've got Rassi from the front telling the boys exactly what to do and everyone respects him. That is why we're going to win. You don't know nothing if you're going to bet against the Springboks. Or if I pick the... Springboks, you get the Kiwis bro, saying oh, this English idiot, this Pommie, he doesn't have a clue, he, he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. So, oh, I can't believe it, he's picking against the All Blacks again, every time you pick against the All Blacks, we come and win, cuz, you don't even know, eh? It's true, and this is a coin flip, man, I, pfft, I see New Zealand having just so much confidence from what they've done. The past two weeks I thought they've done since that france game getting up Scoring those quick tries and then doing enough to keep south africa from dominating them up front physically As long as like I say they can stay in the fight and that is why they get up by a few scores south africa Pegged them back but not enough now. Could that all be bullshit? Absolutely. Who knows what is going to happen? Um, we'll find out in a day's time. Thank you guys so much for watching Um, if you want to call me an idiot, do it in the comments below, mate. I will try to respond, but don't attack me, alright? I'm just trying my best here. I'm not, I, um, um, I'm not a pretty, I'm not a future Seer, okay? Not a Seer Khaleesi, but a Seer. Someone who is seeing into the future. I don't know what's gonna happen, man. I'm trying my best. I love South Africans. I love the way they play. I came under a lot of slack for calling them bullies. You're magnificent. But it's South Africa. Keep it up. The amount of talent these two teams. Yeah, they absolutely deserve to be in the final. They absolutely one of them will absolutely deserve to win this. I think as you know, the northern hemisphere nations become more and more professional. We are finally starting to get more and more challenges to this. And it's not just going to be New Zealand, South Africa. But this is how rugby has been for the past 30 years. It's how it's going to be this weekend. Let's enjoy it. Um, if you've enjoyed this video, hit the thumbs up button. Um, hit subscribe if you want to watch my videos. And again, we're not gonna, I've enjoyed doing these videos, but we're going to go back to more strength and conditioning and fitness based videos in the future. We'll also do some grander schema rugby type videos if you want to subscribe to watch those. Um, thanks for joining. Catch you later.