Boks buck a woeful SA trend and bring us brilliant news
Iwas driving to my son Qhawe’s school to watch him play a soccer match against his peers as the Springboks prepared to face the haka at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand, on Saturday.
My son knew his showdown in the west of Johannesburg clashed with the Boks’ game against the old enemy halfway around the world and he quickly set the ground rules for the day as we got out of the car.
He looked up at me, made the cheesiest, most pleading baby face a 12-year-old could muster, and then requested that Bok captain Siya Kolisi and his teammates should not be allowed to overshadow his game. In essence, I wasn’t allowed to fiddle with my phone during Qhawe’s game — and given that he is his team’s goalkeeper, keeping tabs on me from his vantage point would not be a problem.
So I dutifully put my phone on silent as he changed into his kit, as I knew there would be an inevitable avalanche of WhatsApp messages, tweets and other messages as soon as the sumptuous Test got under way in New Zealand.
And, sure enough, my phone started to vibrate a few minutes later and I knew something significant was happening at Westpac Stadium.
I would later find out that Jordie Barrett had scored the opening try of this epic Test for the All Blacks.
Taking a quick peak at my phone was out of the question as my son seemed to be watching me more than he was actually paying attention to what his teammates were doing in his game. Drat!
So I fought off the urge to give in to the temptation and allow the dark side to electronically transport me across the world to Wellington.
But I wasn’t going to get away with it that easily because my phone continued to vibrate.
About 15 minutes after the first vibration, it shook so violently I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had jumped out of my pocket and slapped me. Again, I fought off the temptation and continued to cheer on my son as he made a spectacular save on his goal line. I would later find out that Aphiwe Dyantyi had scored a try for the Springboks at that exact moment.
The aggressive vibrations would continue for a few more minutes until I finally put myself out of my own misery and switched off the phone.
It was not until we got home that I understood the magnitude of what the Boks had achieved in Wellington.
A side that had been written off by almost all the pundits after successive defeats to Argentina and Australia had managed to pull off one of the greatest victories in world sport in 2018.
The 36-34 result proved that New Zealand are beatable and are not the demigods we often hype them up to be.
More pertinently, the Boks are capable of beating anyone in the world when they put their minds to it and hopefully what we saw at Westpac Stadium is the start of a good thing.
Even the nincompoops who brandished the old apartheidera SA flag — the “driekleur” — at the Westpac Stadium didn’t succeed in their desperate attempt to undermine the Springboks’ performance.
Westpac Stadium officials asked the dunderheads to remove the offending flag after they were alerted to its presence inside the venue by incensed SA fans on social media. It would not surprise me if the same clowns celebrated more than the rest of us at the end of the match.
The role of sport in society can never be underestimated and this victory was very important for a country that has had so little to celebrate in 2018.
It was certainly nice to momentarily forget the shocking crime statistics, the continuing racism, corruption, unemployment, recession, shocking petrol hikes and many other ills we face every day during those glorious minutes after Kolisi and his men had conquered the rugby world’s Mount Everest.
By the way, my son and his team were not upstaged by the Boks — they won their soccer match 3-2.
I CONTINUED TO CHEER ON MY SON AS HE MADE A SPECTACULAR SAVE. I LATER DISCOVERED THAT APHIWE DYANTYI SCORED A TRY FOR THE BOKS AT THAT EXACT MOMENT