Rugby memories.

Watching tonight the play off for third place in the Rugby World Cup between South Africa and Argentina it struck me that this game and the South African team, had played such a memorable place in my life. It also struck me that in some ways the team were equivalent  to a series of milestone.
In the first year I spent in SA, 1963/64 I was getting to know what rugby meant to the country. Feeling alienated in the largely Afrikaner crowd in Loftus Versveld when South Africa played the Lions. Supporting them when I was in Sydney in 1965 in the Sydney Cricket Ground as they toured Australia. What huge men as they got off the bus and how small and exposed I felt as I shouted for the Springbok in the cauldron that was the SCG. 
Colin Meads the Kiwi legend, another Rugby god this time when I was in New Zealand, realising that this was another country which worshiped its rugby.
Sitting in my own home in Johannesburg in 1981,the year South Africa toured New Zealand and we were treated to the cold shoulder from the New Zealand public. Apartheid was the problem and the sight of spectators sitting on the centre of the pitch whilst the NZ police formed ranks and marched around but didn't lay a hand on the pitch invaders was watched with amazement.
Links were eventually severed and International Rugby came largely to a halt until the magnificent World Cup win in 1995 by the Springbok, celebrated by Mandela in his number 8 shirt whilst the actual number 8 Francois Pienaar held up the cup.

The games and the people I watched the matches with, some of whom have sadly passed away, are still etched in my memory. Watching the Springbok play brought a strong sense of comradery between all of us as we downed our Castles or our Rum and Coke at the braai.

Tonight watching Schalk Burger and Victor Matfield play their last game for the Springbok one thought of the others. 



1960. Lofty Nel, Doug Hopwood, Avril Malan, John Gainsford,Tiny Neerthling. 
1970. Frik du Preez, Mannetjies Roux, Dawie de Villiers, Hannes Marais. 
1980. Ray Mordt, Nass Botha, Morne du Plessis, Gerrie Germishuys.
Where are they now ?
Today the game is much more inclusive with some of the best players coming from the ranks of players who would not have been chosen because of their colour. It's a game where those best able to articulate how South Africa was wrong to follow the path of Apartheid are the players of colour who now have the whole country cheering them on.
For me when a 22 year old runs on to the pitch I remember being that age in my first short stay in Cape Town and I wonder where did the years go. I am reminded of his youth and the surety of life's purpose as he accepts the applause and wonder if I had it all again, what would I have done differently.