“I 100% scored that try.” Mark Cueto says before the question has been fully asked. “There’s not a doubt in my mind.”
The former England and British & Irish Lions wing is talking about a moment that now defines his 19-year career in the sport. It came three minutes into the second half of the 2007 World Cup final against South Africa. After a Matthew Tait burst, a whirled Andy Gomarsall pass was tipped on by Jonny Wilkinson five metres from South Africa’s line. Cueto, hugging the left wing, had to pause to gather the ball before diving for the corner just as Danie Rossouw lunged across to make the tackle.
“As a tryscorer, you get a sense of when you’ve got it,” Cueto says. “I knew my foot scraped the touchline but I got the ball down before so I started celebrating. I sometimes get people, mostly Saffas, sending me photos which they say proves that my foot was out. I’m like: ‘Yeah, but the ball was down first.’ Nothing will ever change my opinion on it. Even Rossouw told me years later that he wasn’t sure. If we had the high-definition screens the stadiums have now, and not the blurry footage from a 100 metres away like the refs had then, it would have been given.”
If it had, and had Wilkinson then converted, England would have taken a 10-9 lead. Instead, they would go on to lose a scrappy, tryless match 15-6 with all of South Africa’s points coming from the kicking tee.
“They didn’t get near our line once,” Cueto says. “You never know but I’m sure we’d have defended a lead. But I’m not bitter. It’s not like I knocked the ball on over the line. If anything the story has helped me in retirement.”
Cueto has kept himself at arm’s length from rugby. He occasionally attends the odd event at Sale where he made more than 300 appearances, but remains largely distant from the game. He works as the sales director for 4th Utility, an internet services provider based in Cheshire, but every so often, the events of 16 years ago come up.
“I’ll be at a networking thing and only the most hardcore rugby fan will recognise me,” he says. “But when word gets round that it’s me, that I was the guy who had the try disallowed in 2007, everyone wants to talk to me. I’ll be honest, it’s great. It’s an icebreaker. Even though my life would have been different as a World Cup winner, I can’t complain. It’s quite cool actually.”
Cueto understands the brutality of elite sport and how the finest of margins can change destiny. He also understands that form goes out the window at the business end of World Cups. That even the most unfancied side can come within a painted touchline of immortality.
“No one gave us a prayer in 2007,” he says. “Which was fair. We had a terrible Six Nations that year [finishing third behind France and Ireland] and we got spanked by South Africa in a tour there [58-10 and 55-22 five months before the World Cup in France]. So naturally, confidence wasn’t sky-high. Then we got the humping from the Boks in the pool stage [losing 36-0] but we managed to get to the quarters. We beat Australia, then we beat France in Paris and then we were playing in a final. It was wild.”
The comparisons with this latest England iteration are obvious. Though they’ve won every game so far, they’ve not won over any neutrals with their pragmatic and often stodgy style of play. A favourable draw meant they topped possibly the weakest pool in the competition and then met the only tier two side in the quarter-finals. Still, according to Cueto, they have the personnel to cause a serious upset.
“There are four guys there with over 100 caps,” Cueto says. “I’m convinced that they haven’t fired all their shots. They’ve done enough to win. They’ll have more in the tank. Steve [Borthwick] knows what he’s doing. He’ll be telling the guys that no one rates them. That it’s them against the world. Adversity can unite a squad. It did for us in 2007. I think they’ll all feel free this week. They’ll revel in that. All the pressure is on South Africa.”
Cueto concedes the Springboks are a different outfit to the one he met on five occasions. He praises the defending champions’ newfound attacking zeal but says their core strengths remain. “They can seem invincible at times,” he says. “I absolutely love South African rugby. The DNA of a South African rugby player – the physicality, the way they play with so much heart, how they’d do anything for their country – that’s me. I relate to it. I keep in touch with all the Saffas who played for Sale, though Faf [de Klerk] always gives me a hard time about the try. He’s a great lad. But he’s wrong about that. I might drop him a line if England do a number on him.”
