History of The South Africa National Rugby League Team - Second World Cup

Second World Cup

The following years saw the South Africans play on an inconsistent basis against several touring sides most notably including the touring French and Russian sides. Continued progress would see them again qualify for what would be their second consecutive World Cup in 2000 and leading into the tournament they were hopeful of gaining their first Cup win after being drawn into an easier yet still competitive group with France, Papua New Guinea and Tonga. Prior to the tournament they would play Wales for the first time in a tough friendly encounter. After initial optimism leading into the competition the South Africans would face Tonga in their first world cup fixture and be comprehensively beaten 66-18. The following world cup matches would add further disappointment and diminish all optimism the South Africans originally had leading into the competition with a following loss to Papua New Guinea 16-0 and a heavy loss to the French which saw captain Jamie Bloem sin-binned and investigated following comments made about the referee after the match.