Hippos enjoy rugby too

No sooner had the Letaba Rugby Club’s first team left the pitch on Wednesday night‚ when another group of burly characters made their way onto the pitch – a herd of hippos.

Video footage of the friendly pitch invasion in Tzaneen‚ Limpopo‚ shared on the Facebook page of the Far North Bulletin newspaper‚ had racked up more than 36‚000 views and been shared more than 1‚000 times by the weekend.

Joe Dreyer‚ editor of the publication‚ said having hippo in the town was not uncommon. But what was rare‚ he said‚ was getting them on video.

The club’s field‚ he explained‚ was at the town’s showgrounds‚ which was right on the banks of the Letaba River, where a number of hippo live. “It’s something cool for tourists but for us here in Limpopo it’s an everyday occurrence. We get hippo‚ elephant and warthog‚” he said.

Dreyer said that because it got darker earlier in winter‚ the hippos made their way onto the field earlier than they normally would‚ which meant they could be captured on film.

It’s something cool for tourists but for us here it’s an everyday occurrence