• World Final Box

England and New Zealand, two of the great favorites to glory in the World Cup, are measured on Saturday in Yokohama (08:00 hours) in a high-flying semifinal, where the legendary figure of Jonah Lomu, who died in November 2015, It will return to the minds of the fans.

And nobody has yet forgotten that image of the New Zealand wing in Cape Town. On June 18, 1995, in another semifinal, when Lomu, with 20 years, was knocking down three English adversaries with a sweeping mixture of power, speed and brute force. Tony Underwood, Captain Will Carling and Mike Catt bowed down to the great world rugby star of the last years of the last century.

Despite that exhibition and its 15 rehearsals in 11 World Cup matches, Lomu (1.96 m, 116 kg) never raised the Webb-Ellis trophy. Their defeats in the final against South Africa (1995) and in the semifinal against France (1999) can be compensated by the third consecutive title of New Zealand.

"Change the story"

However, with 86% of wins since the last World Cup, the All Blacks seem less untouchable than four years ago. As a sign of his respect for England, Steve Hansen already risks on the board, placing Beauden Barrett as an opening.

England seems much better equipped than Ireland, shattered in quarters (46-14), to "change the history of rugby," according to Eddie Jones' verdict. The English beat Australia in the previous tie (40-16) and build confidence and automatisms, thanks to their 18 wins since March 2017.

The XV de la Rosa has large ball carriers in front (the Vunipola brothers, Maro Itoje, Manu Tuilagi) to whom New Zealanders, also perfectly equipped with Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Kieran Read and Ardie Savea, must respond "hit by hit ", according to deputy coach Ian Foster. "I expect a boxing match between two heavyweights, one in black and one in white," Jones illustrated.

Twickenham's "lesson"

New Zealand will place Scott Barrett in the third line to bother the English, as happened last November in Twickenham (15-16). Europeans have only won seven of the preceding 41, the last in November 2012 (38-21). "That day we learned that you never had to relax. We allowed you to go back and that was a great lesson," Jones explained.

Old connoisseur of the international circuit, the cunning Australian, runner-up in the world in 2003 with the Wallabies, has struggled to put pressure on the other side, through his statements or his comment of an alleged espionage attempt during his training Tuesday .

Hansen voluntarily accepts the pressure: "Before we avoided it, now we assume it. We have it in every game, be it quarter-finals, semifinals or a simple test-match. But you have to be very naive not to recognize that it will weigh in both ".

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