The Springboks’ Rugby World Cup victory has captured the whole country and the world, if recent reaction is anything to go by. It was not just the last game, where they beat arch-rials New Zealand 12-11, but the whole tournament where they really had to dig deep to get the job done, that caught everyone’s attention. They were magnificent with eye-catching performances throughout and this has seen them hero-worshipped, celebrated and admired since that October 28th final. The wild celebrations have been going on, uniting South Africans across colour and religion, so much that even non-rugby followers have become fans and suddenly have an opinion about the game.
We’ve seen how united the country has been since the tournament started up to the very last game. Even weeks after the final, people are still celebrating our rugby national team. Long may this continue! Everyone who speaks about the Springboks now will definitely be listened to and entertained. We’ve had so much fun celebrating the Bokke that we even, unwittingly, forgot about Temba Bavuma and the Proteas representing us well at the ICC World Cup in India, where they are in the semifinals. Such has been the dominant impact of the Springboks in the country and the world at large, we’ve seen emotional scenes during the trophy tour, social media posts that captured the imagination, adverts, videos, print and digital interviews celebrating our brave Springboks.
One hopes something good will come out of this and it doesn’t just become another once-off, where the country feels good and it ends there without any tangible difference. If there’s one thing we’ve been consistent in, as a country, it is allowing such opportunities to pass us by. For several years we’ve failed, dismally, to capitalise on the situations that favoured us. If you look back to the 1996 Afcon success, we failed to make it count for us. The same thing happened with the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosting because there’s very little to show for that whole month of the world’s eyes firmly on South Africa and both these occasions saw the number one sporting code in the world played in our country. When you look at rugby, it is a completely different story because they’ve been consistently doing well and making the most of the opportunities to propel our country whether they are playing home or away.
