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‘Belongs at the Rugby World Cup’: 49ers star shines in Super Bowl with goosey
By Finn Morton
The San Francisco 49ers fell painfully short of victory in Super Bowl LVIII after Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes led a memorable charge to glory in overtime.
But before all the confetti and jubilation of the Chiefs’ second consecutive Super Bowl crown, which included images of pop star Taylor Swift celebrating on the broadcast, 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey risked stealing the show.
McCaffrey, who was crowned the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year earlier this week, stunned fans at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium with one of rugby’s most iconic attacking weapons.
With the match locked at 19-all in overtime, and with the 49ers parked just inside their own half on a 2nd & 6 play, McCaffrey made a telling burst on the back of a perfectly executed goose step.
The goose step, which is more affectionally known in rugby circles as a ‘goosey,’ aims to throw a defender off as the attacker momentarily changes the speed at which they are running.
It was made popular by Australian rugby legend David Campese.
McCaffrey, 27, was knocked out of bounds about 25 yards away from the endzone. It didn’t end in a score but that hasn’t stopped rugby fans from praising the American for the iconic manoeuvre.
On the back of McCaffrey’s heroics, the 49ers – let my second-year quarterback Brock Purdy – managed to take the lead with a field goal.
But the Kansas City Chiefs still had a chance to win it all. Then-two-time Super Bowl winner Patrick Mahomes could win another ring with a touchdown.
Mahomes overcame immense pressure to keep the game alive with a conversion on a 4th & 1 during their opening set of downs, and the momentum that generated carried the Chiefs down the field.
About three broadcast shots of Taylor Swift later, Mahomes made history with only a couple of seconds left on the clock by inspiring the Chiefs’ fourth Super Bowl win in franchise history.
Mahomes threw a touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman Jr. The Chiefs are Super Bowl 58 champions after beating the 49ers 25-22 in overtime.
“Just the adversity we dealt with this year… I’ve just got to give God the glory, man,” Mahomes told NFL on Fox. “He challenged us to make us better.
“I’m proud of my guys, man, this is awesome. This is legendary.”
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Latest Comments
Jake - thanks for the analysis. Agree.
Also would say that England have built a very aggressive defensive system, which is likely to keep opponents to low scores, especially as they settle into it. The NZ tries were well executed, and it is going to take that to create scoring chances against this England team. We will no doubt see more of that when the Boks go up against them.
But the overriding message for me is that they could not execute on the basics in the last quarter. Whether or not England should have been in that position, the fact is that they were positioned to win and could not do the basics well enough to close it out. The reason I find that really problematic is that this is exactly what I thought Borthwick was all about - that he was not targeting the flashy stuff (at least not yet), and was really putting in place a core that could be built on going forward.
Unfortunately what we saw was a team that was clearly unable to raise their game enough to win the arm wrestle in the last few minutes. That feels like a coaching miss.
Go to commentsEffectively yeah, I like the move from Razor, reward those that play well when they get a chance (happened first for Tamaiti over Ofa).
I think he's got room for improvement still too, so happy that he's been told that he needs to perform better if he wants to come straight back in.
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