Rugby League 2008 World Cup Final Highlights 

Told my son - "c'mon lets go support em, not much chance but at least we're there", by full time, tears and emotions were overflowing. I said to my Son" I had to wait 50 years for this, you only had to wait 12 ya lucky bugger....lol"

This and the game in 2010 will always remember them. Great wins great comebacks. Was a great time being a kiwi.

One of the best wins because that was prob the best Kangaroo squads to ever grace the field Stacked from 1 to 13

You can tell the aussie commentators are gutted

How epic was this game! 2013 repeat!

Coached by Wayne Bennett I'm not surprised

Damn after 7 years this game is still in my head would probably never forget this as a kiwi.

I walked outside that night and did the solo haka 🤣✊🏿

Whats funny about this match was Darren Lockyer getting player of the match LOL what a joke that was hahaha

rugby league for ever. rugby union is certainly my second favourite game , but my first love is certainly rugby league. it will be for ever. i'm from exeter, in devon, which has a lot of football and rugby union, but not much rugby league. that doesn't matter to me. i love the game, and always will love it.

I was going thru alot of personal shit in my life that year 2008, but, seeing my Kiwis Rugby League team win the WC & lift that trophy, lifted my spirit again, forever grateful for that moment in Kiwi RL history! 🇳🇿🏉🏆💯🤙

Still to this day the greatest rugby league game ever to be played

Best League game ever.........

One of Nz's sports highlight's of all time for sure. I really believed this couldn't happen being a huge league fan since a kid, was amazing!!

Never gets old seeing Aussie fans departing before the final whistle!

I couldn't stop crying that night. Never thought I'd live to see us win a world cup. I live in Oz and was watching it at a mates place where I was the only kiwi there. I was getting it from everyone until the last 15 minutes because everyone started leaving the party. Fortunately they left their beers! Got pissed as that night!

0:42 lockyer improves the position nek minute still 4-0

I could watch this all day!! I still wonder why they took so long to hand out the medals after the game and why Lockyer got man of the match

What a bloody game that was! One of the best surely

all the dislikes are probably australians

Hopefully the Kiwis replicate this performance this year 🤙🏽🔥

3:28 England fan cheering for the penalty try

Still gives me goosebumps! Awesome game.

Brings that lump in my throat every time I watch this, it's just fucking incredible. Credit to the Aussie commentators too, like know it's their job to have equal opinions but they advocated that penalty try when other's would have complained. Just fuckin great.

W.O.R.L.D C.U.P F.I.N.A.L! A Grand Final is contested between club sides. This is the World Cup.

I've always admired the Green and Golds for the exciting way they play league, and you can't beat the English fans for the way they love the game...but I'm a proud Kiwi so it was great seeing the boyz take this one!!!

Arguably the best team Australia has ever fielded

No but you state RL is a bastardised version of RU. Which is of course exactly the legacy in language of the morally vacuous standards held by the RU for more than a century. Of course we know why you are watching this. You want to see a game where actual "Rugby Football" skill is defined and a game not decided with the boot and where kicking out on the full is penalised rather than encourage. Hope you enjoyed.

The kick out on the full from in the 22 achieves a gain in territory that contributes to the defense. 0% skill rewarded with a gain in ground. Union is a game of possession not territory, the exact opposite to what you want to believe. Union was devised by school children for amateurs League was devised by sportsmen for a paying audience.

Look how you Aussie fan treat your team... They all start leaving before the game finished... Shows you Aussie supporters are only supporters when use win... And can't handle losing to a way smaller nation like us kiwis see we with our teams through win or lose it's called harden up

just had to watch this again...good memories

This game proves why Billy Slater is the most over rated player in the game.

I am an Aussie but this was a great win. After so many years of Australia having ownership of the world cup seeing the Kiwis win was a breath of fresh air. Now in 2022 with the Pacific nations going from strength to strength it is no longer just a trilogy but more of an actual international affair.

The NRL are broadly (*emphasis) using the same model as the NFL - whereby they maintain control over all aspects of the sport. They have since adapted the game to appeal to wider entertainment audiences, which they can do, as their control allows them to adopt rule changes much more fluidly. Rugby League freely adapts and removes ambiguous rules and confusing interpretations, far more so than RU. I think it is in this sense that RL seeks to 'improve' on RU.

I'm born in Australian, but love Kiwi's to much

Is it any surprise Wayne Bennet was coaching the kiwis in this tournament...

remember watching this live back in nz. Best game of all time

Russell Crowe was born in NZ... just thought I'd point that out

I WAS AT THE GAME

For australia and new zealand it must just be boring becaus ethey are the only good sides in the world cup

Greatest Fullback ever? Perhaps so. At least Top 3 for sure. But gotta have a laugh at Billy Slater's shocker brain fade at 2:40 😂😂

What game stacked with legends on both sides💯

The Aussie team that night was full of some of the biggest stars of recent times, and at home in their centenary year. Absolute stunning win by the kiwis.

this mornings semi final win against england brought me here...i feel it happing again!!! Kiwis to win back to back world cups!

The greatest nz kiwis team ever!!!never forget this win 🙌🙌🙌

Hohaia Little Juggernaut

Looked like a great final. Saturday ngt - October 30, 2021.

Best ever game & win by NZ Kiwis over the Aust Kangaroos👏👏👍😊

For australia and new zealand it must just be boring becaus ethey are the only good sides in the world cup

Australian born, soul of a kiwi

Wayne benett is a fuckin legend

Best NZ team I swear!

Typical Video Ref decision for David Fa’alogo try, they were able to award that, however come to Andrew Fifita’s 🇹🇴 Try for MMT against England in the Semifinals RLWC, Ref didn’t bother going upstairs...

That first try by Lockyer was brilliant. The awareness of Lockyer is unmatched by any other player

Still gives me goosebumps

Aussie aussie aussie no no no hehe

1:10 Prime Benji🥶

We party in the sunshine state of Qld,Brisbang 💥 back in 08 still remember it clearly but 017 was the game changer from the underdogs of the game Team Tonga hopefully it'll be back on our shore's again here in Auckland NZ 👍

Wayne Bennett, the super OG of NRL coaching

No not really, in rugby league there is no contest in the breakdown. Union is designed to be a contest in every part of the game, from scrum to ruck to lineout you have an opportunity to win the ball at any time. Unlike RL where you have to wait for the set to be over, the other team to make a mistake or the other team to kick the ball to you. Although i see what ur saying its like comparing bread to toast and imo i like toast better ha!!!!

AGAIN, another comment that shows ur complete lack of knowledge. If it was a game off possession why would they kick the ball to the other team? Why is there a kicking duel regularly.. It is for TERRITORY! Get that through ur thick skull :) and no. Union was made by the rich university students who were SMART and had money. League however was made by the working factory men WHO WERE DUMB AS SHIT. Now please tell me how league is superior when union is a global game and league is not. Please?

This just clarifies your complete lack of knowledge, one question, have you ever played either of these sports? It is not a reward for kicking it out on the full as the other team gains possession. Also i would like to see if more than 3 players per team can even kick a football in RL. U is a game off territory and i assume the dynamics are far to complicated for you to comprehend. Also to your "little boys game played by amateurs" comment, come back when RL is played in more then 10 countries.

THE BEST NZ 🇳🇿KIWI RUGBY LEAGUE 🏈 TEAM WORLD CUP 🏆2008 GRAND FINAL BEST GAME EVEN THE KANGAROOS 🇦🇺 PUT UP GOOD GAME

Leon Tutauba. What makes you think that something that is superior is automatically going to dominate. Plenty of cheap low quality things are more popular simply because they are easier to do and available. You try and make out the marketplace for sport is a simple thing and it is not. RU has spent millions drained from its WC's on promoting the game in places like USA while RL has buttons to spend. But still outside GB OZ NZ and SA it is only ever an also ran. RU In the UK lots hundreds of clubs to soccer and 10,000's of fans in the late 18th C and has never got them back. And again I take no account of RU popularity seriously when it dedicated itself to removing the potential for RL by banning players and using other influences. Just as it is still doing now in Morocco and Russia.

LOVE RUGBY LEAGUE 🏈 SUPPORT THE GAME FOR NZRLFC 🇳🇿 TO EVER WIN THE RUGBY LEAGUE 🏈 WORLD CUP 🏆 FINAL IN 2008 IS A BLESSING KANGAROOS GOING AS FAVORITES KIWIS AS THE UNDER DOGS CAME UP ON TOP WITH THE WIN 👽

How bloody fucking under rated was LANCE FUCKING HOHAIA???

It was amazing to watch Pacific Team to win the World Cup. Like New Zealand won it for the whole Pacific Region.

Really, RL has twice the time spent with ball in play but that is no indicator of intensit? RL players run, pass, tackle all far more than RU counterparts but that is no indicator of intensity.. RL players can't just stop playing with marks or boot the ball straight out and gain advantage. You may have noticed the game of R has players forced to pass BACKWARDS so the 10 yard rule forces no easy yards as the defense closes on the scrimmage line immediately.

No it is not an opinion it is fact. The clubs that invented Rugby League had to develop the sport as Rugby by 1895 had been on a down slope for decades losing ground to soccer. Many rugby clubs stopped playing the game and turned to soccer because the game and the spectacle was so utterly pedestrian. The rules of RL are devised top remove the poor skill and tedious play from what went before it. That is a fact not an opinion.

Sorry intensity is absolutely indicated through statistics. Not least the fact U has much more time with the ball out of play. 45 minutes of a U game is spent with the ball not doing anything. The low skill elements allow any potential intensity to be diffused by kicking the ball straight out, low rent rugby. RU is advertised absolutely everywhere. RL is not. Low skill schoolboy sport surpassed 100 years ago pathetic. 1 game of RL has more rugby than an entire union tournament.

The majority of the world thought the world was flat at one point, I have little appreciation of the opinions of casual rugby audience. Most haven't a clue what they are watching. A difference in rules that allow poor levels of skill to be used. No in RU a team can sit on the ball for 20 phases and do very little with it but kick. Pressure is relieved with a bit of poor level skill. RL rules have removed the low level skills as not fit for a decent sport.

Repetitive style of play like ruck, ruck, ruck, penalty, kick out, scrum collapse or go for goal. No these stats show just how little actual rugby is in a union game. And illustrate appreciation of sport is not the motivation for watching it. Far more to do with geography, history and culture. The selling of U has far more to do with audience than their ability to know. Clearly the levels of union intensity are not illustrated in fact.

Not true. Sport is not exempt from objective comparison it is very possible to say that different sports have elements that are directly comparable. With RL and U you pare individual game elements and compare them. eg; kicking out on the full. RU allows the ball to be kicked straight out and the kicking team gains distance advantage, huge gain from low skill. RL see's kicking the ball straight into the crowd as an act on non skill and penalises it.

No popularity has no part to play in superiority. Schoolboy code is not a particularly edifying label and so fans won't define themselves or the game by that even though it is 100% accurate. You make geographical claims about RL meant to convey its inferiority yet offer no objective reason for the difference. According to your criteria soccer is infinitely superior than RU. Ignorance and rugby illiteracy is one of the founding qualities of casual union fans.

Argumentum ad populum is a logical fallacy, why anyone would try to say one is better than the other is stupid - it comes down to personal preference at the end of the day, it's impossible by any means to definitively say which is better, by what criteria would you do it? The only thing you could say is which is the more popular code, not which is more superior as superiority is a subjective term.

Haha ok. RU don't learn anything off RL and you have no evidence to suggest otherwise, if anything it's the other way around. Lack of international competitions are a massive motive to why other countries struggle to pay any attention to RL. I don't understand how the Rugby Championship with Two of the best teams in the world can be put in the class of 'mediocre'? There are no facts to the superiority of RL.

A recent survey in the UK put Union in 5th place on a list of sports people faked interest in. 26% admitted to not liking the game. I wonder how many didn't admit to it. Outside of NZ Union is just another game. And frankly a tedious style over content fest propped up by decades of hypocrisy. And as for the Rugby Union championship game, you see more running the ball by one Super League team than both NZ and SA combined. Ignorance loves company, hence RU's popularity.

I disagree rugby league basically have the Same positions. With the addition of lock forward. A lot more skill is involved to play union idiot. Rucking, mauling, scrums, lineouts, the dynamics are far more superior than Rugby League. Take last weekends games. Great nrl final, but it didn't even come close to the intensity and quality of the springbok v allblack game. League is nothing more than playing the ball and kicking on the last tackle, Exciting, NOT!

Rugby league is the Emperor with no clothes. Millions of dollars have been spent convincing our shackle dragging cousins that league is a good game. Its not. Its brutish, simplistic and one dimensional. It'll never be played in Asia, South America or continental Europe because the only parents who want their sons to be brutish, simplistic and one dimensional live in NSW ad Queensland.

Yes if you start as a youngster then you can play in one way or another for more than 20 years.. Sean Edwards, Andy Farrell, Brian Noble, Sean Long, Dennis Betts the list of RL people who have been in RU coaching set up is endless. Oh and RL does not have a breakdown, it's called a tackle and it's very competitive The concept and complexity of RU is simple can't run, pass, tackle, won't run, pass, tackle. But lots of kicks to the crowd and opposition fullback, and penalties, and failed scrums.

You realise the team that wins the toss has the option as to kick off or not? Union was invented by school boys who were amateur RL was invented by the best union players who formed the RFL. Popularity does not equate to superiority. Table tennis is easily 10 x more popular than union. your question is spurious. RL players coach RU teams it does not work the other way round. Why because Union is the low rent amateur code and RL the refined professional one.

Someone needs to read you the comments so you understand. Kicking out on the full, the main union defense strategy, is 0% skill. Turning to the crowd and booting the ball to them because you can't run it out is skill less. You keep repeating the same tired and proven false arguments you are drip fed from union, shows your lack of understanding. At no time in a chess game do the players get to say lets start again, which is exactly the role of the mark. U is a little boys game played by amateurs

Unfortunately you don't seem to have any worthwhile opinion. As for you Lineout comment yet another impotent element in the RU arsenal, uncompetitive, poorly skilled and slow. Turning a restart into a pantomime for tall poorly skilled players. And as for your scrums, so skilled 50 % fail to restart the game and result in a penalty. Still if you like your sport with only 35 minutes of actual ball play per 80 the union is for you.

so in your first game as a professional RL player a professional RL coach told you only to do the basic run to the opposition. What is irrelevant is the example of your first attempt to play RL being used in an attempt to portray RL. RU kicks out on the full and the team gains a reward, RL penalises such acts of 0% skill. U attempts to portray the low rent elements that RL removed as superior as it has no choice.

I know this cyber argument was over a long time ago but what you are saying is completely irrelevant. i have alot of experience in Both U and RL. and the first thing my RL coach told me was that when i get the ball i had to run it straight to the defensive line, i stood there with a confused look on my face . there was no set plays or line breaks. the only time things got interesting in RL was when a team was 5 away from the touch line and it was the final play. U has much more depth than that.

So you think you're better then me? Population is going pretty good, growing steadily. The reason all he kiwis are moving over is because someone has to do the jobs properly seeing as the Aussie's are hopeless at it. Warriors choke every year?Didn't know they were favorites to win the comp each year? Even though i couldn't care less as i don't support the Warriors (which half of the team are Australian anyways).

I know a great deal about U. It is too difficult to argue against it if you dont. You are not quoting anything to promote your idea that U has depth.The fact you are not bias toward each one is not a reflection on the qualities of either or a superior attitude. I never said RL is faster therefore its better. RL is better because it is purposely designed to remove the flaws from U. Union is the schoolboy version mockery in the face of its assumed quality and standards is absolutely correct.

, i can see where u are coming from.but i can also see u dont knw nothing about U.u say U allows kicking on the full?wrong, iv played both games and i am not bias towards either one, im simply saying tht just because league is faster doesnt make it better, soccer is a faster game than league and i dont think tht makes it better, there different, ,u like a faster game fine dont go mocking a sport when u are clearly ignorant about it is all im saying. take it as an argument or whtever, dont care.

Is that supposed to be an argument? Union is a flawed sport filled with inadequacies. Union; lower amount of time for the ball in play. Lessr requirement for passing, running the ball. Allows kicking out on the full. Allows non competition in the face of the attack. Huge number of restarts from scrum and lineout. Lower tackle requirements. Most points scored from penalties and comparatively few tries thats not mentioning U's deplorable social and legal history. Now what do you know of the game?

no depth to U? .There is alot more planning that goes into lineouts and scrums then u seem to have picked up on, Iv also played L as well as U so i knw wht im talking about. and before i played L i thought it was just people running at each other without any plan other than getting in range for a high kick and hoping for a try, so please dont say U is shit when u obviously know nothing about it, and dnt judge it on the dork whos trying to say U IS BETTER THAN L there both as good as each other

As far as American Football is concerned. Both AF and RU share. Specialisation of players to the point they lack all round skill and are chosen for particular set pieces. Plays involving designed none contest, AF the knee, RU the mark. Putting the ball out of play directly is not penalised but advantageous. Development from school sport ideology. Serious safety problems that are not successfully addressed by laws or equipment. Very low levels of actual play. Time consuming, isolated set pieces.

One code has a history of corruption, hypocrisy, bigotry, prejudice, theft, is anti free will all with the defining help of an establishment setting out measure to preserve this sport, this is not opinion. RU is bound by the RL. All the innovations and solutions were made and your game simply can't follow. You embrace all the schoolboy standard flaws despite the ELV's trying to put them right. Aggrandising flaws as intelligent design is something 100yrs of pedestrian devolution has given you.

RL is a game designed by sportsmen, played by sportsmen and shown to a critical paying audience, by design. Only one code borrows from the other and that is RU. Coaches, plays, techniques, training all one way traffic. Your unpredictable set pieces are predictable for the ball carrying side to the tune of some 85-95%. 84% of passing moves involving only 2 passes is described by the IRB as an "accepted constant". You walk, get to the floor, roll the ball back and repeat until penalised, mediocre.

The secret to your ruck, maul, breakdown and lineouts along with the scrum is that they are largely predictable and uncontested. Contrary to the official line of "competition" in RU. The RL play the ball is faster, less prone to penalisation, open for all to see and more competitive than U's "competitive" play. And AF is wholly based on RU. Boring, unproductive retention was ID'd by RL and solved. Like I said the more time U has to play the less likely they are to score tries. Grand dirge!

Well it is clear you struggle with the basics as the last 6 nations illustrate. Most telling is the fact that 52% of tries are scored from 0-3 passes and 84% of all pass movements involved 2 passes or less. So you do struggle to string more than 2 passes together, IRB stats prove this. Unfortunately these phases you talk of don't actually translate into actual Rugby, as the more a team has the less chance of scoring it creates. You are a schoolboy code because Union is designed for schools.

@ScoobyTheSuby dude im nt 11 im not one of those spoiled little kids these days im way older and hohia might have had a chance to get to it but if u saw the replay, slater might hav made it on time to stop it as he is the best fullback of the game especially defensively i mean seriously did u see last year sate of origin 3 wen watmough was most certain to score and all queenslanders gave up hope but slater never did and still saved a try, that coulve been the same here

@Au55ieBloke787 Hey mate, im not one of these 11 year olds that goes around bagging people on youtube but dont most tries in league come off mistakes where be it a defensive mistake or turnover etc? And the whole point of a penalty try is that foul play prevented a player from scoring a certain 4 pointer (Lance would have in no doubt scored the try anyway). You are also correct about the Anzac test, although I strongly believe the results each year may differ if we had some games in NZ.

How does it feel Aussies? Have a bit of glory rubbed in your face! KIWIS!!!!! Bring it on in the Four Nations final.

That is not the end of the day it is merely the start, middle and end of your argument. You have been presented with the facts and you merely fail to address them. Your only contribution is petty playground name calling of a sport, no insight or knowledge, no rebuttal backed up with and facts or indicators. Weak very weak.

The stats provided here are just an indication of how repetitive RL is. You've only brought up stats that more frequently occur to RL. If you brought up more stats from RU you would see a larger increase of variety. How can you expect the all blacks to compete with these tackles and runs when it's basically the only thing that happens in RL?