Rugby Hangover

Lost my blog in a draft somewhere about the Rugby World Cup...but I'll give it another go.

Rugby Hangover, I'm sure it's an official term sitting in a dictionary down south. I believe I have one. Currently, I'm watching a bit of Rugby League just to get a little fix - but it's not the same.

The Rugby Union World Cup is over for another 4 years and it's been great. Maybe I should have made more of an effort to get to a game/fanzone but I don't feel I missed out by not going.

I met the Springboks - I met the guys who cause me to jump up and down and shriek so loudly (that CG tells me to shhh), I met the guys who have brought me to tears with their prowess, their skill, their utter commitment, the guys who have given me so much entertainment and happiness. I have shared their elation when winning and sadness when not. And yes, I'm chuffed to bits that I did meet them. It made my tournament and certainly ticked off a box or two. That I saw the men who have entered my living room for years on end. The ones we'll never see again.

And NZ won the whole thing yesterday - pretty much never in doubt that they would but Boks came close. In my humble and clearly very biased opinion, the final was last week, the SA vs NZ game, it was a pure game of rugby, fast from start to finish, on a knife-edge the whole time - not knowing which side of the coin we were going to come out. It was in short, bloody brilliant. I got to watch it in a place called Sutton, watching TB play some awesome tennis. I ended up in the reception of this sports centre with about 3 other male folk - jumping (but not jumping, just raising up to the balls of my feet) and trying to contain my wails of glee/despair while also watching tennis and punching the air over that. It was a great day. Got to go somewhere new, got to see TB play really well and got to see 'my' Boks play amazing rugby. It ranks up there as a super day really. Lets do it again.

I'm going to miss the RWC - until 2019 in Japan. I really do like this sport so much. So much a part of my life I guess, school rugby on a Saturday (sometimes provincial, rarely international), football on a Sunday - both with my dad (even through high school) - that was the Winter for me (Summer we did baseball and cycling). I wonder if that's why I like international more than club - because schoolboy rugby was always fast and action packed - and you followed your school (or brother school) like you do your country? With huge amounts of passion and banter with other schools - I guess in Westering, it really did bring the community together, my dad didnt' even have a son but joined the Supporters club since he figured he may as well support the hordes who came to visit all the time. Supporters club - yup they raised tons for the school but it was a social thing. They'd start on the Friday night with a jam session or some darts and on Saturday bright and early, they'd be up there cheering on the little ones, right on to the afternoon until the First Team played. MANY a time, I had to run home to get another bottle of sherry - I guess us teens weren't the only ones who drunk illicitly on the school fields. And the moms would be buttering the rolls for the boerewors and it was just a great vibe. If there was a provincial match, the men would all pile off there... for more drinking and eating and singing and even rugby watching.
I suppose you could say that was the 'typical' white south african male role. But it worked for when we lived in PE. It was nice. I saw a side of my parents, that I had only seen glimpses of in Cape Town - I was older so that might be why. Our house was always full, there was always something going on, there was always a party somewhere. I'm not going to bleat the only child thing but that sense of family/community we got from Westering, was pretty awesome.
That might be why I love rugby - it might be, the connotations of a good vibe...  and maybe because rugby has been good to me and forms the basis of some fantastic memories.

Bring on Japan (2019)!