SA Rocks

Are. You. Kidding?

Steyn drop-kicks the ball 60m away from its destination. It clears the poles with possibly more than another 30m to spare. Easily a 90m drop-kick. WHAT?

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This is possibly one of the most entertaining videos that I’ve seen in ages from South Africa.

The video depicts a Springbok fan going through the touring bus of Bokke trophies acquired and held by the Boks right now.

Fantastic. Truly.

Thanks to Pienaar for sending this one on!

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RUGBY

CRICKET

What a fantastic achievement. South Africa is currently the number one country in Test Cricket Ranking and the Rugby Union Rankings. What a sight! What an achievement and what a time to do it.

Coupled with Caster Semenya’s victory and the 2010 World Cup coming to SA, the Gautrain and tourism pumping, South Africa is looking good right now I’d say!

As of Monday 24 August, South Africa is top of the world Test cricket rankings (by virtue of England beating Australia). Not only that, we’re also top of the world One-Day International cricket ranking as well as being the number one ranked Rugby Union country in the world. So we are top of both the cricket and rugby rankings at the same time!

I cannot remember when any country last managed this feat. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that it MAY have been Australia in 1999, because they won the Rugby World Cup that year and have been top of the cricket rankings for about the last 15 years or so. England topped the rugby rankings briefly in 2003 but they’ve not been number one at cricket for many years now. New Zealand have regularly been rugby’s number one, but never in history have they enjoyed this status at cricket. Even Australia’s feat in 1999 may not match what we’ve done, because winning the Rugby World Cup does not automatically make you the number one team (although it obviously helps a lot).

All we need now is for Soccer to follow suit …

Thanks to Paul for his nudge, reminder and research! Good work.

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In an absolutely nail-biting finish the Springboks took on and defeated the British & Irish Lions to take home a series victory. 2 matches, 2 wins. That’s good odds.

The Bokke played an absolutely terrible match in the first half with the likes of Schalk Burger being sent off within the first minute of play for gauging someones eye. I expect more of a player of Burger’s capability (I struggle to say class as that was most definitely not classy Schalk).

But the heroes of the evening were Peter de Villiers’ replacements, Morne Steyn and Heinrik Brussouw played the games of their lives to make it very difficult for Mr Burger and Ruaan Pienaar to get back in to the starting line-up. And rightfully so. It’s time that players learned that it is not their right to play in the starting line-up, it is earned.

Nevertheless with no time on the clock and South Africa behind, Morne Steyn, the drop-kick master stood up and slotted a 52 metre penalty to secure the game.

Nice one Bokke.

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It’s been a relatively good weekend for South African sports.

Bafana Bafana played great football on Saturday but sadly lost to Spain 2-0. In spite of the final score I felt that the lads played one helluva game and improved their football tenfold from their first performance in the Confederations Cup.

Now, lets just hope that Bafana can hold a MASSIVE upset and defeat Brazil in the semi-final. Surprisingly Egypt did not make it through to the semi’s. I think after their historic victory over World Champions Italy, they deserved to pip the USA and go through. Alas it was not to be.

And the Bokke pulled off a lucky victory against the British and Irish Lions on Saturday. I say lucky because we technically received a thumping in the second half of the match. A great performance in the first half put us up by a fair amount. The Beast had a ripper of a game and destroyed the scrums for the Lions. When he was replaced. Things went bad.

I am impressed with Mr Peter de Villiers and his response. He took blame for making substitutions too early in the game. This most definitely put us in a tricky slot. We handled it well and luckily came away with a win.

Finally, yes in case you had forgotten, we still lost the T20 semi-final. Pakistan however, ended up winning the tournament. Congratulations to them!

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It’s been ten years in the making but South Africa have finally won the IRB Sevens Series.

The final pool standings looked as follows:

South Africa finished on 132 points, Fiji were second on 102, England ended with 98, fourth-placed New Zealand had 88, Argentina 68, and sixth-placed Kenya 64.

South Africa finished the season with victories in Dubai, George, and Adelaide, while England won in Wellington and London, Fiji took victory in Hong Kong and Edinburgh, and Argentina won in San Diego.

SA also reached the final of the Cup in Hong Kong and Edinburgh, the semi-finals of the Cup competitions in San Diego and London, and won the Plate competition in Wellington.

South Africa have played consistent rugby and took the overall points championship in the tournament. This off the back of the Bulls victory in the Super 14 Final.

Hat-tip to southafrica.info and SA Rugby for the photo. for the heads up.

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In yet another triumph the Vodacom Blue Bulls have won, for the second time, the Super 14.

This team just gets better and better.

Not only did they win the final against the Chiefs from New Zealand, they destroyed the Chiefs. The final score was an incredible 61-17. I’m not even sure who didn’t score for the Bulls.

For me the stand-out performance came from Fourie Du Preez who will undoubtedly be the Springbok Scrumhalf for the British Lions tour coming up.

image courtesy of Mail & Guardian

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Keep the springbok rugby emblem, I don’t think you can certifiably state with certainty that majority of South Africans are offended by the emblem.

image: lionsrock

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Finally the Bokke have managed to win in NZ’s house of pain. Bloody fantastic news. Not only are we world champions, but we are #1 on the log and our new coach Peter de Villiers gets a win to boost his campaign.

All in all, great news. Oh and apparently there is a chance we could “secure” a draw in the cricket.

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In my previous entry I wrote about moments I consider pivotal in South Africa’s history.  With our rich history, there are a number of other interesting moments  worth mentioning (and I will not even begin to pretend that this list is conclusive):

Handled the ball

People make it into history books for different reasons.  On the 5th January 1957, in a test cricket match between South Africa and England, Russell Endean made history by becoming the first batsman to be out “handled the ball”.

Master of the universe

In 1961 Gary Player became the first non-American to win the US Masters, and followed this up with further victories in 1974 and 1978.  South Africa had to wait a further 30 years for Trevor Immelman to post its next victory in 2008.

Beatles are unbanned

On the 3rd March 1971 the SABC (for once showing some sense) unbanned the Beatles.  The original ban had been imposed after Lennon had claimed that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus”.  Presumably, the SABC had been convinced of the matter.

Wimpy

In 1967 the first South African Wimpy opened (in Durban), forever changing the country’s gastronomic landscape.  Back then a Wimpy Burger with chips and coke would set you back 60c.

4  :  0

South Africa’s greatest ever cricket series victory over Australia, winning all four tests played (the closest Australia came was losing by 170 runs at Newlands).  The victory was so emphatic that Australia refused to play South Africa for over 20 years.

15 : 12

On the 24th June 1995, the South African Springboks led by Francois Pienaar beat New Zealand’s All Blacks 15-12 to win the William Web-Ellis trophy.  The All Blacks explain their defeat as being due to a waitress called Suzie having poisoned them.

Kyoto protocol

On the 31st July 2003 South Africa signed the Kyoto Protocol.  Little did we know how well Eskom would (unintentionally) enforce it.

Gay marriage

On the 1st December 2006 Vernon Gibbs (38) and Tony Halls (52) make history by being the first gay couple to legally tie in the knot in South Africa.  The couple get married at the home affairs offices in George (Western Cape province of South Africa). Even if being gay (in the homosexual sense) is not your thing, it’s liberating that we live in a country where it is tolerated.

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