Sporting Moments of the Year 2015
Japanese Rugby Team beat South Africa in an upset for the ages- Charley Adams
Ranked 13th in the world and having won just one world cup match – against Zimbabwe in 1991 – meant that the odds were stacked against Japan before they faced South Africa in Brighton on 19 September.
The Japanese were a huge credit to their coach Eddie Jones and his forward lieutenants, Steve Borthwick and Marc Del Maso. The versatility of their lineouts amazed their opponents, who included world cup winners in a side that was their most experienced in World Cup history.
With 20 minutes to go, a score line of 22-22 would have astonished anyone turning on this match. But those watching this life changing event for Japanese Rugby could not fail to be impressed by the pace, accuracy and technicality of the underdogs. Against the odds they levelled the scores; causing the excitement to build on my sofa at home.
The hope seemed to fade as South Africa scored to lead 29-22. But Japan responded tremendously, with a fast try following a perfectly executed inside pass that allowed Ayumu Goromaru to score. The conversion was successful; making the score 29-29 with 10 minutes to go. Inside the stadium, the tension visibly rose as the spectators roared on the Japanese in their numerous attempts to break through the South Africans. With pulses racing, they finally succeeded. Camera shots honed in on the ecstatic Japanese team, their coaches, the cheering crowd (even neutral spectators) and emotional scenes of proud Japanese supporters in tears of joy for their heroes. South Africa seemed half in shock, half in disarray as they watched the celebrations.
This dramatic turnaround of events in what had been predicted to be a throw away match caused the crowd and the viewing public to erupt in united surprise, shock and excitement. This cannot be discounted as a brilliant sporting memory of 2015.
Team GB grab a record breaking Gymnastics medal haul at World Championships- Izzy Coomer
2015 was the year that Team GB put British gymnastics back on the map. The men’s and women’s artistic gymnastic teams brought home a record-breaking 5 medal World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, while both teams made history as they won the first British medals in the Championships Team competition.
The men took home the silver, narrowly missing out on gold by 0.473 points to Japan; China placing in third, leaving previous favourites the USA and Russia outside of the podium positions. The women’s team shared similar success, winning the bronze in the Team Competition, missing out to the USA who won the gold and China who took the silver. 16-year-old Ellie Downie individually placed 4th and 6th in the competitions for vault and floor respectively. But there can be no doubt that Sports Personality of the year nominee Max Whitlock was the MVP for Team GB. Alongside his impressive efforts in the team event, where he competed on all six apparatus’, the 22-year-old claimed the gold medal for the individual pommel horse competition (another record breaker), the silver medal for his floor routine and placed 5th in the all-round competition. Louis Smith MBE lost by just 0.1 points to his team-mate in the pommel horse competition and took home the silver, while Daniel Purvis finished 7th in the all-round competition and 5th on the floor. Team GB’s success at the World Championships leaves us eager to witness their performance in Rio this year, when we hope they will bring home even more medals and keep raising the profile of the sport.
Wayne Rooney breaks England goalscoring record- James Roberts
Scoring your 50th international goal to break a 45 year record would be enough to earn you legendary status in most countries. But this is England. Within seconds of Wayne Rooney moving ahead of Sir Bobby Charlton’s tally of 49 England goals against Switzerland in September, the usual accusations were being levelled at the Manchester United striker. Some say that he is overrated, or that he only scores against inferior teams. These arguments can be debated all day long but they should not take anything away from Rooney’s achievement.
This is a man who has been England’s go-to player ever since making his debut aged 17. Rooney’s international lows have been well-documented; his highs, less so. His performances at Euro 2004 dared Three Lions fans to dream of a first tournament triumph since 1966, until his injury ended England’s chances. At the age of 30 he is still England’s most consistent goalscorer, with a goals-to-game ratio of 1 in 2. Rooney would be the first to admit that he could have achieved more at international level – but has a single member of England’s ‘golden generation’ served his country better than the England captain? The goal against Switzerland was unremarkable, yet it cemented Rooney’s place in English football history. No matter where your allegiances lie, you cannot deny that he is deserving of that place.
The 4th Ashes Test Match, the first session of Day 1 at Trent Bridge – George Morgan
60 runs. 10 wickets. 111 balls. The result of an extraordinary morning in Nottingham. At 2-1 down in a series most pundits expected them to win, Australia were put in to bat and needed to get runs on the board. But, with the fall of in-form opener Chris Rodgers to the third ball of the day, it started horribly for them and simply got worse and worse.
Australia’s talisman Steve Smith, rated as the best batsmen in the world at the time, fell to the final ball of Stuart Broad’s first over. The destruction continued, as David Warner lost his wicket edging to the keeper just two balls after Smith had fallen. Shaun Marsh and Adam Voges soon followed. Throughout the morning it became apparent that the Australian batsmen could not play the moving ball. The poor technique and rash decision-making exhibited by supposedly world-class batsmen morning was to observers, such as Geoffrey Boycott, the inevitable result of a lack of exposure to traditional English conditions and a lack of pre-series matches.
However, credit should not be taken away from the rampant pack of English seam bowlers, led by the magnificent Stuart Broad who ended the innings with mind blowing figures of 8-15. It was under their pressure that the Aussies wilted. Mark Wood bowled one of the balls of the series to find David Warner’s inside edge and Ben Stokes took an unbelievable catch diving to his right with all the agility of a top-class goalkeeper.
In this combative, adversarial coming-together of Cricket’s oldest enemies, the sight of pedigree batsmen flailing fruitlessly outside off stump and wickets falling like skittles is what will go down in history. In the words of the Australian Sunday Morning Herald, it was “Pomicide”.
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