Sunday, 21 October 2007

We won!!!

Congratulations Ammabokke for bringing the cup home.. and doing so on foreign soil!!! I am so proud of you.

This was the most tense match that I have seen in ages - every try, more important than the other. We watched the match at a friends house sadly with British commentary and that in itself was difficult. As we all know, there was very little objectivity and the English commentators took the cake, when at the end, it was announced that " the South African team is now APPARENTLY the best rugby team in the world" - Come on, we just won the rugby world cup, we are the BEST!!!



I
I just wished we were in the UK when this game was taking place as I think with the significant number of South Africans in London, the atmosphere would have been amazing. At our friends house here in San Diego, we were hoping that we would see one of those Habana tries, but seeing Percy in action, smashing into cameras and and Stein , the 20 year old who kicked 47m to score, we felt proud.

Looking through the papers this morning, we were filled with emotion to realise that this time round, all South Africans were supporting our team - from Soweto to Paris there were South Africans celebrating the win. In Soweto, a makeshift screen was made using a white sheet and a projector in a local stadium so that people could gather and watch the game together... It made me feel even better when we saw a couple in Springbok shirts walking (well actually stumbling) back to their car in Mission Hills, San Diego after celebrating the win last night.


My favourite photo is the one above of the English and South African fan side by side in costume. I hope they did not have their own scrum at the end of the match. I also enjoyed the photo of South African fans in front of the Eiffel Tower flying our flag.. With ticket prices for the final reaching $8,000 a ticket, its good to see that so many fans got to go in the end.

I think that I will finally buy the Springbok shirt after pondering whether to do so every time I go back to South Africa, because I know feel that many more South Africans believe that they can associate with the Rugby team. Who would have thought that that game of rugby (once reserved as a white only sport in the old South Africa) could once again unify our nation. I just hope that the spirit continues and that the unification process continues.


I hope the celebrations continue, that South Africans continue to feel proud of their heritage and that we do well enough in 2010 on the Soccer front.

We aptly celebrating the win by opening a bottle of a 1995 Warwick Cabernet Franc, a vintage when we won for the first time!!!. For a South African wine, it managed to age well enough to be enjoyed yesterday.

(please note photos were taken courtesy from the telegraph website).

No comments: