World Champions

Well there's no need for an explanation, the whole world surely knows that South Africa won the Rugby World Cup 2007 on Saturday night. What an awesome experience, took me right back to '95 when I was in Standard 9 and we won the trophy for the first time, although this time round it was better because I had ice cold Hansa's on tap coupled with cane and pashies on the side.
In the days preceding the match there was frantic panic with everyone trying to do something "special" for the final. It's quite difficult to get everyone on the same page for such a huge and important event, but in the end after exploring options such as Zinkwazi, Umzumbe , and going to Midmar everyone eventually came to the party - the party I refer to is the rip roarer that Nicky and Pants hosted at their house in Hillcrest. Seriously the amount of effort and attention to detail was magnificent!! Flags, Springbok blankets, green and gold shooters, predict-a-score, balloons, 3 braais and a flipping marquee in the back garden to host us all. There were 40 of us in the garden and it was comfortably packed. Not squashed, but full enough to feel like you were doing and sharing something big with a good group of friends. I played golf on Saturday afternoon and it was incredible to see how many guys were wearing their national colours on the golf course. I also witnessed people in the streets clad in their rugby jerseys as well as the odd car sporting an SA flag hanging from the window. When that final whistle blew and the ensuing chaos erupted, it was nothing short of awesome, awesome in the true sense of the word....not in the sense of "Hey bru, these sausage rolls are awesome"

The best part is that you knew there were about 40 million people simultaneously experiencing the same sense of euphoria with you. I think it's a stretch to say that the World Cup victory is going to end crime in the country and will bring us all so close together that all our problems will cease to exist, but I can definitely say with certainty that you could have walked the streets of South Africa on Saturday night and people from all races and social standings would have been high fiving each other, and it's pretty great to have had that, even if it was just for a few moments.