World Cup final favourites England cut to 8-15 to overcome South Africa

England came in for early support to win Saturday's Rugby World Cup final after South Africa booked their place in the Yokohama showcase on Sunday.

Victory over New Zealand in Saturday's semi-final saw England installed as 4-6 trophy favourites. Bookmakers had priced up the two possible finals, making England 4-6 to beat South Africa and 1-4 to win if Wales were their opponents.

By Sunday afternoon England had been cut from 4-6 to 8-15 and a general three-point handicap had been pushed up to four. South Africa are 7-4 shots to win in 80 minutes.

Sunday's semi-final turned into a tense encounter, with the scores level at 16-16 with 15 minutes to go, but a late penalty from fly-half Handre Pollard swung it the way of the Springboks.

South Africa's 19-16 victory set up a repeat of the 2007 final in Paris, where they ran out 15-6 winners against England, and overall the Boks hold a 3-1 World Cup advantage over their final opponents.

England were 25-6 winners when the teams met at the pool stage in 2003, but four years later the Springboks hammered England 36-0 in the pool before edging them again in the final. A quarter-final meeting in 1999, again in Paris, ended in a 44-21 victory for the Boks.

England have won three of their last five meetings with South Africa, the most recent an edgy 12-11 success at Twickenham in November, but before that had gone 12 matches without a victory. Overall the teams met four times in 2019, claiming two wins apiece.

Wales are 15-2 to bounce back from the disappointment of defeat by overcoming New Zealand in Friday's bronze final. The All Blacks are 17-point handicap favourites.

One silver lining for Welsh fans is that winger Josh Adams stands alone at the top of the try charts with six. He is 1-4 to finish as the tournament's top tryscorer, while South Africa's Makazole Mapimpi, who has five to his name, is 9-2 with BoyleSports.

South Africa fly-half Pollard, who scored 14 of his team's total of 19 against Wales, is 6-4 to be top pointscorer. He stands on 47, four behind Japan's Yu Tamura and one ahead of England's Owen Farrell, who is a 2-1 chance.