There are those who declare rugby the South African religion, the Springboks being the current reigning world champions with 4 World Cup titles earned in 1995 (hosted and won by South Africa), 2007, and consecutive wins in 2019 and 2023. They have won half of the World Cup tournaments they have participated in! The next World Cup will be held in 2027 hosted in Australia and then 2031 the World Cup will be somewhere in the US!!
Truth be told, as far as religion goes, rugby is a distant 2nd, as South Africa is predominantly Christian, at 86.3% of the population — but it’s definitely fun to learn what this passion is all about!!
Our friends Larry and Jenny Mathew’s son, Lyle has been recruited for the Sharks, the farm team for the national Springboks team. He plays position #11, left wing. We’ve been invited to come watch the games. So far we have been the good luck charms — they’ve won two for two!
Lyle is fast, smart and very athletic. Rugby is such a fast moving sport, yet he makes it appear to be so easy and effortless. I like to video his plays and then break them down into freeze frames to analyze what Lyle does on the field. He’s brilliant. I’d love our grandsons, Josh and Kovieka to be able to be here with us to watch and learn. Josh is playing right wing, #8 or 14, right now—similar role to Lyle. It’s good for us to be learning the game so we’ll be in the know when we come home to watch them play!!
Watching a game looks very much like watching kids out roughhousing at recess— for example, take the “scrum.”
This is what the scrum looks like from the bleachers…. Yaahhhhh
This is what I imagine it looks like from inside the scrum… yaaaahhhhh!!
In the players’ eyes, it looks more like this…. And if all goes well… here’s what it looks like at what we would call the goal line— in South Africa it’s called “a try”! I must unlearn what I have learned… “Do, or do not. There is no try.”
Yoda from Star Wars
So yaaahh… Wish us luck!!
And the Sharks!!!
And the Springboks!!!!