The All Blacks and the Spring boks break new ground tonight when they go head-to-head at the wonderful Soccer City venue in Soweto.
There's a real irony in the choice of venue. Rugby has always been the white man's game in the Republic, and more specifically, the Afrikaaner game. Grounds like Ellis Park and Loftus Versfeld have been fotresses for South Africa. Soweto, on the other hand, was the epicentre of anti-Apartheid activism, and it was the massacres in the South-West Townships which almost led to the cancellation of the 1976 All Black tour to South Africa. Today, tens of thousands of rugby-loving whites will descend on Soweto to watch Die Bokke try to rebuild what has been a disastrous season. As an occasion alone, it will be huge.
Then, of course, there's the rugby. The All Blacks are the form team in world rugby. In contrast, the Springboks have had a month to lick their wounds, to regroup, and to brood over a woeful first half of the Tri-Nations. They cannot win the Tri-Nations, but in the three remaining matches, they can salvage some pride. We have many Afrikaans friends, and we know that pride is important to them. Surely, the Springboks will fire tonight.
They will have to. The All Blacks have been red-hot in 2010. They haven't been beaten since that night in Hamilton in September last year. And they have played a magnificent style of rugby this season. Today, they get to play on a hard, dry ground late on a highveld afternoon, in ideal conditions for fast-paced attacking rugby. There's a very settled look about the team.
The Springboks have made wholesale changes for this match, and the most notable is their absence of a specialist open-side flanker. The All Blacks won the loose forward contest comprehensively in the home matches; we wonder if Peter de Villiers has made a big mistake with the selection of Juan Smith.
There are so many fascinating sidelines to this match; it's John Smit's 100th test; Richie McCaw equals Sean Fitzpatrick's record as the most-capped All Black; and then of course, there's the Soweto factor, which we believe will favour the visitors. The All Blacks haven't won in Johannesburg since the 35-32 match at Ellis Park, which was the only All Black match we've ever attended outside of New Zealand. Tonight, we're tipping them to win, and to win well in what we reckon will be a high-scoring encounter. MySky is already set in case the alarm doesn't go off! Bring it on!!
7 comments:
Jeez I2 - you make it sound as if the hundreds of thousands of students in Soweto were not rioting and breaking and burnng everything in their path and threatening the lives of all around them.
Did you know that in the more than 40 years of Apartheid in SA only 20 000 people died as a result of political violence.....of those only 8 000 were killed by the security apparatus. I doubt that there were any other sub-Saharan countries (other than those under the direct influence of SA - Botswana, SWA, Lesotho, Swaziland) that did not have at the very least a 10 to 100 fold higher number of deaths due to political violence in that same time period. Also that the dastardly Bantu Education system was producing the highest literacy rates (barring Rhodesia) in sub-Saharan Africa.
The 'National Stadium' is in the suburb of Nasrec, close to but not in Soweto.
The game is going to huge, but I don't think that Pieter de Villiers has the expertise or the vision to have changed much in the Bok's game. The AB's should win this one.
Appreciate the history lesson mawm - bear in mind that over here we got an agenda-driven version of what was going on in SA. The anti-Apartheid movement was the cause celebre of the day, and as was seen here when the Springboks toured in 1981, the media was to the forefront of advancing the cause of the protest movement. From memory, the students in the townships were protesting having to learn in the Afrikaans medium - correct?
Agree with you about de Villiers. I read Mike Greenaway's column in the Herald this morning, and apparently the Boks have been working on an improved kicking game. I reckon that they'll need more than that to win tonight.
I2 - The AAM was run out of Moscow. Nuff said!
It wasn't only the intention to have intruction of 50% of their classes in Afrikaans, (I hope people are never forced to have to learn Maori) it was the whole overcrowded, underfunded Bantu Education thing.
Of course the whole '76 uprising was being driven by the ANC and their campaign to make the townships ungovernable. A lot of innocent people were 'necklaced' by these agents provocateur to forment fear amongst the poor downtrodden masses.
Unfortunately SA is stuck with PDV and the rest of the circus at SARU. The political interference through player quotas, race of the national coach and the constitution of the Unions is there not so we can win, but so that the 'white man's' sport can be subjugated; just as the political interference in business, media, etc. is aimed at sidelining all the 'white' influence in SA.
PDV himself has every intention of doing the best he can but is unfortunately not among the best of the limited number of competent coaches available in SA. Can you imagine what Deans could do with the amount of raw talent available in SA ?
As far as the game is concerned I just hope we don't see another game of league with the odd lineout.
Ha ha, pdm. I'm certainly not squandering valuable sleep on the off-chance. The NPC continues to entertain and surprise and I see no reason to watch anymore than news bulletin highlights from SA...I am a pom though
@ James - you're still too used to games where the scoreline is dividable by three eh?
INV2 - I think JS thinks an away draw is as good as 1-0 at home - lol.
I think I will take mrs pdm down to the Walkabout on the Embankment to watch it at the civilised time of 4pm. I should think it will be humming.
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