Last Friday marked the start of the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. For a lot of our friends in the Philippines, rugby would just mean some sort of superglue. Be assured that in South Africa, rugby is serious business.
Supporters have started the Rugby Friday, where everybody is urged to wear their rugby jerseys, shirts, gears, etc. on Fridays to show their support of the South African team. Most schools and businesses really showed their enthusiasm last Friday at the start of the World Cup. You can see my child as she gears herself with the springbok shirt and waves her small South African flag.
According to Wikipedia, rugby is a style of football originating from Rugby School in the United Kingdom. I personally have not taken a liking to this game and think this sport is too rough as the players do not wear padded sports gear (this way, it is very different from American Football) as they tackle each other on the field.
But the game is definitely big here in South Africa. The South African team, fondly called the Springboks, have been twice World Champions already. Once in 1995 - this epic and symbolic win was depicted in the movie Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman as former President Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the then winning Captain of the Springbok team.
The Springboks are the current defending World Champion, having won the tournament in 2007. There is high hope that they will win again this year. Go Bokke!
Of course, being a supporter can get really tiring, and so after her big rally, we popped by the local KFC to feed our little big supporter some KFC pops. :-)
2 comments:
wow! passionate supporter you got there!
by the way, i left you a KI$$, hope i get one back, thanks!
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