Kick your worries away for a moment, Bok-and-braai time is here! Indeed, that stage of the four-year rugby cycle has arrived where the Springboks go in search of more World Cup glory, with hordes of supporters backing their trophy quest.
And for those millions of fans, why not ‘warm up’ for the big game with a social gathering involving family, friends and a few kilograms of meat?
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This undeniable South African custom comes to the fore now, and Bok coach Jacques Nienaber has also sent out the right vibes by saying his men are “very excited about this occasion” of starting their title defense, which will be against Scotland in France on Sunday.
“We’ve been building up for this World Cup for the last four years and we are thrilled to get our campaign started. We’ve been working hard in the last few weeks to make sure we are as prepared as possible going into this match, and we are fully aware of the challenge that awaits us,” he said on Wednesday when naming his team to face the Scots.
That team, everybody understands, is more representative of the South African nation than ever before, and has a captain in Siya Kolisi who seems to possess the right mix of charm, skill and humility.
Kolisi would probably pay from his own pocket for SABC viewers to watch all the games in France if he had the means.
But in the absence of that, he and his team-mates will likely be hoping that the national broadcaster and rights holders SuperSport soon find some way to revive the business negotiations that reportedly collapsed last week.
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The broadcasting saga appears to be another strange situation in our beautiful but tortured land.
Nevertheless, there’s clearly the smell of ‘Go Bokke!’ in the air at present. Nienaber, Kolisi and company would do well to remember that the harder they work in France, the more it will be appreciated by a stressed-out nation crying for better days on many fronts.