Monday, August 10, 2009

Springboks Rugby Match

International sports are awesome! In the States we have a few international teams but none get as much recognition as the NFL, NBA, or NHL. On Saturday I experienced my first Springboks rugby match. The Springboks, who are the national team of South Africa, played against the Wallabies from Australia. We killed the Wallabies with a final score of 29 to 17. The Springboks star player, Morne Steyn, scored almost all of the points for the Springboks. He is apparently the up and coming star on the team and is expected to surpass some of the older players on the team in terms of stats and skill.









Rugby is the national sport for South Africa, even though South Africa is hosting next year’s World Cup in Cape Town at the Green Point Stadium. Rugby is a much more rough form of American football. Although, the two games share very little commonalities, other than there are two teams fighting for control over one ball and forcing their way into either end zone. Rugby players play without padding or helmets. Both teams’ players take a beating on the field, mostly getting tackled and racked with cleats.







No sporting event is really complete without an appropriate pregame complete with plenty of meat and beer! Thanks to some local connections, the gang and I went to Guguletu (a township just outside of Cape Town) and went to wonderful restaurant call Mzoli's! It was an experience to say the least. We ordered meat from a local butcher and then took our bowl/tray of meat to the back of the restaurant. It was there in a smokey room that a Braai master took our rare meat, seasoned it, and cooked it to order. It was probably some of the best meat I had since coming to South Africa. The best part is that we ate with our hands and got pumped for the Spingboks together. Can you imagine anything better than Black Label, steak, braai sausage and friends? The correct answer is NO!











The Springboks play in the Tri-Nation tournament with Australia (Wallabies) and New Zealand (All Blacks). Currently the Springboks are number one in the tournament as we have defeated both New Zealand and Australia. I’m not exactly sure how the ranking works out or when the actual tournament is finalized. All I know it is all very exciting!

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