South Africa: Rugby World Cup Champions

After a month of World Cup play, South Africa emerges the world victor!! Not only have we gained a proper education in rugby during this time, we – ignorant Americans – now actually enjoy the sport, along with the rest of the world. (What’s the world’s most popular sport: rugby or soccer? Close call.) The final was played in Paris on 20 October, between RSA and England (with Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, Princes William and Harry, and Thabo Mbeki in attendance), and we watched the final at a nearby coffee-shop, along with 50 raucous fans. RSA also won the World Cup in 1995, when they were a newly unified country, so once again the country has united in cheering on the team. Celebrations and partying went on late into the night after the win. Awesome!

There are usually a half dozen men standing at the corners of busy streets in Cape Town, offering everything from hand-crafted beaded animals (a Cape Town specialty) to fresh strawberries to the daily newspaper. On the day of the game they dropped everything in order to sell RSA flags! Many vehicles had them flapping in the wind by game-time that evening.

Julianna and Blanche cheering for the Springboks!

The Ellis Webb trophy, won in 2003 by England, but in 2007 by South Africa!

Some very basics: 15 on the field at a time; two 40 minute halves with a running clock; and terminology such as fly half, prop, and lock (three different player positions), and ruck, maul, scrum (three different 'plays' on the field), forward pass, knock-on, shoeing (three penalties), and drop-goal, penalty, try (three ways to score). Oh, and if one commits a foul worthy of a yellow card, one must sit in the sin-bin for 10 minutes!