Rugby World Cup Official 2003 Review: England: The official review of the 2003 Rugby World Cup for the English rugby team. The second Rugby World Cup to be contested in the professional era, the 2003 tournament in Australia is already being touted as the greatest rugby show on the planet.

Rugby World Cup’s Greatest Moments 2003: The moment England finally became World Champions. All the drama, all the action, all the greatest moments from the 2003 Rugby World Cup. The ‘2003 Rugby World Cup’s Greatest Moments’ release celebrates all the finest and most entertaining action from the sport’s ultimate showpiece as the superpowers of world rugby come together for only the fifth time. Great tries, huge hits and scintillating skills from England’s, Australia’s, New Zealand’s, South Africa’s and France’s superstars all feature on this sensational, fast-paced, highlights programme.

Synopsis
Provides a compilation of the highlights of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, including the build up to England’s victory.

As England - the same squad of players will go into next year’s World Cup Down Under with genuine hopes of glory after their first series success in 14 years!

Led again by the immense Jamie Peacock and energised by pocket rocket Rob Burrow Great Britain forged ahead with a narrow victory in the opening test at Huddersfield’s Galpharm Stadium. A week later in Hull, inspired by the genius of Leon Pryce, Peacock’s Pride of Lions demolished the Kiwis - scoring an unanswered 44 points in one of the best performances ever seen on home soil!

With the series won Smith made changes for the final test at Wigan’s JJB Stadium but after a slow start his charges stormed back, scoring five tries to win 28-22.

Enjoy extended highlights of all three fantastic victories, as our league boys put the Great back into Great Britain!

Synopsis
Features extended highlights of all three victories by Great Britain against New Zealand in the Gillette Fusion Test Series 2007.

Both DVDs presented in a nice box (They are available on their own, please do a search as this may be a cheaper option)

You get about 12 minutes from each game.

This DVD was put together very early on in “the new Millennium”, and the Dallaglio commentary is all about: “we need to keep doing this in a World Cup”.
So it’s of interest as it’s the time that England started to win on the World stage and began to assemble their World Cup side, but as a highlights package, there are a few problems.
Crucially, England don’t score many tries in these games. And watching Wilkinson belt it over from all corners of the pitch is admirable but hardly thrilling when seen years later.

And there are games I thought might be there which aren’t. e.g. England’s sensational win in Ireland in 2003. Or any of the summer tour to Australia and New Zealand in 2003, when England were sensational, let alone any of the World Cup.

What’s happening in these years is that England’s second row and back row forwards were strangling opposition and putting forward a platform for Wilkinson to kick penalties or the occasional break from the backs. Yes, Robinson does glitter here, and Greenwood shows what a loss he has been: the only guy to glue England’s back division together in the last five years.

So it’s good to remember a time when we could genuinely beat all comers, but it’s not thrilling as a highlights package.

Special Features
Features * Commentary Track featuring Gareth Edwards, Phil Bennett and David Duckham