Nelspruit and the Rugby

This past weekend I traveled to Nelspruit to stay with my classmate and good friend Graeme (aka Goochi).   Nelspruit is 3 hours east of Pretoria, very close to the border of Mozambique and Swaziland and is the nearest city to the famous Kruger National Park.  This area of South Africa is called the Lowveld (the “low bush”), because as you travel from Pretoria you come down off a giant plateau called the Great Escarpment that makes up the horn of Africa.  Driving for an hour down into the lowveld the landscape changes from grassland to savanna due to temperature.  Savanna is the most typical African biome and is commonly called the African “Bush” because of the constant layer of grass with small trees and bushes mixed in.

City of Nelspruit

We went to Nelspruit to get away from the hustle and bustle of Pretoria and most importantly to watch the Rugby.  I’ve always found it difficult to watch organized sports such as American football, however there is something about rugby that excites me.  First in rugby there is constant action; there are two 40 minutes halves where there is few pauses in the game.  Secondly is that rugby is an international sport.  Unlike American sports such as baseball, football, hockey, and basketball, which are all privately owned teams that may represent an area, but most players are from all over the country or other countries.  In Rugby you have regional teams that represent a province or region and then there is a national team called the Springboks. 

In what is called Super Rugby, teams from 15 major rugby countries such as New Zealand, England, Australia and others compete against each other.  Going to a Super Rugby game is truly a national experience as all South Africans are there to support their country. Unlike many American sports, when a super rugby game is playing the entire city and country is involved, because it is truly international competition (where South Africa happens to be one of the best teams), it’s sort of like having the Olympics every month. 

On Saturday we donned our South African jerseys, occupied and supported our local pub at 10am, before marching in a procession to the stadium.  Helicopters and jets flew overhead with “Go Bokke” written across their sides, the Afrikaans chant for the Springboks. In the stadium we first watched Samoa take on Italy in an exhibition game prior to the main event. In a stadium of 45,000 a sea of green and gold proudly sang the national anthem of Nkosi Sikele’iAfrika and thousands of the rainbow nation’s flags were feverishly waved…it was hard not to feel South African. 

Gooch and I supporting the boks 

You may have seen the movie Invictus about how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freedman) and Springbok captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damond) united the nation through winning the 1995 World Cup. This sport once represented apartheid and the white community, but now being in that stadium it truly has brought the country to life. Playing the Scottish (who are not the best team), the Springboks put forward their second string team at first, however after a sorry first half they upped their game to win 30-17. Two weeks ago the Springboks played the American team and beat them 109-0. 

After the game we traveled back to the pub on a bus where a race fight almost ensued amongst my friends and a group of other locals, reminding us that perhaps tensions were not completely dissolved. However at the pub we got the chance to meet and have drinks with the players! Including Eben Etzebeth the 6’8” lock and Booby Skinstand longtime flanker and previous captain of the Springboks.

As of today I am finished with my exams after over a month of work and I’ve been in ZA for 5 months…I’m looking forward to more great weekends like this one.