Bafana must first survive the Group of Death
However, in the golden haze of memory, most of us forget that in the last Springbok preparation game before that tournament, the Boks squeaked home in Cape Town and were roundly criticised and even written off.
I thought of this as euphoria – not just expectation builds here – before the Africa Cup of Nations. We have 10 games under Shakes Mashaba since tasting the bile of defeat and the 3-0 win in Mali was a result way above most predictions.
However, on the street, many are talking about winning the competition, let alone surviving the ‘Group of Death’ in which we find our- selves. A case of hubris before a rapid descent, perhaps?
Naas Botha and I always disagreed about preparation. He liked the last practice game to be perfect. I felt a stuttering, error-packed performance left a necessary sliver of fear in the gut and acted as a good motivator. Maybe Naas was right. However, maybe the growing expectation will put too much pressure on Bafana Bafana. They are talking things up from the camp. We need to see it on the pitch on Monday.
The stadium in Libreville looked like a prison ground. Huge empty walls on three sides and a bumpy pitch with long grass – hardly the best venue in which to prepare. Mind you, some stadiums have a magic all of their own regardless of size or fancy design. Think of the old Orlando Stadium. It was a dinosaur and a dangerous death trap when full, but it captured an atmosphere you could taste as much as feel. It was brilliant.
Last week in London, I managed to get to the Stoop Memorial Ground in Twickenham. Harlequins played Leicester in the Premiership and I was dreading revisiting such a horrible place.
In the old days when you played at Quins, there was an oval track and a small stand that normally was half empty. It had the same atmosphere as the moon. None! How things have changed.
Some 14 000 supporters were packed like Sardinian pilchards into the ground last week. There are now four compact, matching grandstands with corporate boxes on the main one. Many kids, some as young as seven or eight, were in attendance and at halftime they got to march around the pitch. Mums and dads supporting both sides were there along with the traditional Hooray Henrys and much banter was thrown about, but nothing was aggressive or out of place. Music was played at all stoppages and I wonder, does a certain Manfred Lubowitz from Orange Grove in Joburg get any royalties? He, of course, became Manfred Mann and his 1960s hit Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quin) has been shamelessly plagiarized into The Mighty Quins. He should call them.
The game was very good and, after Leicester started well, Nick Easter, the Quins’ former England No 8, put in a storming performance and was the player of the game. We always knew he was hard to stop but, unlike so many of our forwards, he has now added the offload and it was he who set up