When Springbok flyhalf Handré Pollard was working out if he could kick the 55-minute penalty that would win the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal against hosts France, on-field captain Bongi Mbonambi screamed into his ear: “This is for South Africa.”
And it was. Pollard slotted that kick as he did six days later against England, when the lacklustre, emotionally exhausted Springboks stumbled into the final.
But we’re in the final and, once again, sport has shown us the way to unite our fractured country — in precisely the way our ageing political leaders can’t.
For one week South Africans won’t care about politics, as the Springboks show us how to rise from adversity (or just being shattered from playing a second mini-final against the hosts after the pool defeat by Ireland). The country could do with some good news and some inspiration.
Siya Kolisi is the most extraordinary of leaders. He has inspired his team to a second final and a chance to hold the Webb Ellis Cup aloft again. As much credit must go to the eccentric but brilliant coaching duo of Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber.
It’s an oft-repeated saying that sports coaches would make good presidents and “imagine what Rassie could do with running corruption-weary South Africa”. Apart from it never happening, there is a key difference between the people playing for the Springboks and those working for the government.
The Springboks are doing it for the country, as Mbonambi reminded Pollard, and Kolisi constantly reminds us all. Speaking of Cheslin Kolbe’s game-deciding charge-down against his former teammate Thomas Ramos, Kolisi called it “chasing lost causes”, that the team “don’t give up until they put the ball down over the try line”.
Crucially, he added: “We worked together as a team. We never give up. You can lose as a team, but as long as you don’t give up.”
Imagine if our government, like the Springboks, could do it for South Africa
Imagine that work ethic from our government, from the State Information Technology Agency workers who went on strike instead of managing the country’s (derelict) state IT agency. Imagine if nonpractising mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe and electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who is unable to practise after the ANC chair dubbed him a mere “project manager”, chased the Eskom “lost cause” with as much commitment.
Like they did in 1995, the Springboks are uniting our country in a way that our political leaders don’t — and bringing us together like the braai-loving people we are.
Because this is a technology column and I will get into trouble for drifting off focus, I have to say I watched most of the games through the DStv Stream app — and not my DStv Explora decoder (though I have recorded all the Springbok games to watch again the next day). A few years ago, while upgrading to the latest Explora model, I realised we no longer needed the XtraView decoder for the TV we put on the patio. Instead of hardware and cabling, I was using an app. Television — like so much else that used to be a stand-alone service — has been subsumed into the internet. TV is an app.
Rugby is real life and we’re going to win the World Cup. This is a team making its own luck and its own destiny — a timely reminder all weary Saffers could do with.
*Shapshak is editor-in-chief of Stuff.co.za and executive director of Scrolla.Africa
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