The Office - Tribute

The Office – Tribute to our warriors.

The 2011 Rugby World Cup Squad.

This week’s episode of The Office won’t be the usual witty banter and silly stories of what we get up to on a bi-weekly basis. No, this episode is dedicated to a team that we as South Africans have grown to love, through sickness and in health, The Springboks.

Every four years the Rugby World Cup comes around and provides teams with the opportunity to let go of the past and focus entirely on this 7 week tournament where composure, both on and off the field, is tested on a permanent basis. Smaller nations look forward to the excitement of playing against the world’s best and the whole experience of a world cup. The top nations are focusing completely on achieving one thing, ultimate victory, the chance to say “We are the best team in the world”, an opportunity to right all past wrongs and lay claim to a small golden cup that symbolizes the pure passion for rugby union, shared by all the competing nations.

John Smit lifting the trophy in 2007

In South Africa that passion has a deeper meaning however. Sport for South Africans is not defined as “just a game”. Sport has brought this nation together, a nation with such an intense history and divided past, that together with Nelson Mandela and a speech made my Francois Pienaar at the 1995 Rugby World Cup he united us in a way that can never be broken. From that point onwards, rugby, and the Springboks have become more than just a rugby team, they have become the ambassadors and warriors of a nation. A nation that does not define itself by the strength of the Rand or the number of exports, but by the power we have to unite and write our own destinies. The once again won the Rugby World Cup in 2007, re-igniting the unbridled passion for this great nation. The Soccer World Cup did much the same as we all adopted Bafana Bafana and united behind them as we hosted an incredibly successful world cup. A year later, we would unite again.

World Cup supporters poster

2011. Rugby World Cup. We united once again behind our team, our ambassadors, our warriors who were about to go to battle. I watched a program called Cup of Glory, which was about New Zealand and their passion for the All Blacks and what it means to them and they said something that made sense to me. They asked why we as fans feel such passion, why do we get angry or sad, why do we go into a depression when our team loses? It goes back to our ancestry, back to a time when the finest warriors in the land had to defend their land from the enemy, and it was the idea that those chosen men were representing every single person in the land and fighting to the death to defend it. We do not have those kinds of battles anymore, but it can be likened to our passion for sport and the team that essentially represents us. A team that whenever it is announced we all have an opinion on, because we feel that we are represented by them, that they are defending our honour.

Jaque Fourie unable to believe the loss.

It was that honour that took a major blow when the Springboks lost to Australia on Sunday. Watching that game, watching those 22 men give absolutely everything, every fiber of their beings, in order to be victorious, only to be found short in the end… that was heart breaking. Not only because we lost, but because it is the end of an era. To see John Smits face after the game, a man who has not only represented his country as a sportsman, but who was been an ambassador for South Africa and the game of rugby, and to see his complete disappointment, was hard to watch. It made me want to shake his hand and say, “Boet, in all the years we have watched you do battle for us, we have watched you carry our nation with your comrades in arms, and although you may have lost today, this will never take away the pride, the joy and the passion you have given us as a nation. So let us carry you home”

You may look at this and think I am taking it too far, “it’s just a game, there will be others”. My response, this is not just a game, it’s not just a sport, it’s a representation of all that is important in this life: passion, determination, self-belief, courage, grace and camaraderie. John Smit is not just a rugby player, him and players like Victor Matfield, Percy Montgomery, Fourie du Preez, and Bakkies Botha, are a group of men that have taught us what it is to be committed, passionate and selfless. We bid them farewell, not the farewell they would have planned, but life has a way of reminding us of what is truly important. And for these guys, that is now their families.

So it is with pride, gratitude, and complete appreciation, that we bid them farewell, the greatest group of players we have had, and will have for a while, giants of the game, thank you for every moment. Hold your heads high and move forward. The new guard holds exciting prospects and the new coach, whoever it is, will have a wealth of talent to choose from. I can only hope that they internalize the examples that have been left for them, and take this great nation to where it deserves to be, at the top of the world.

South Africa is and always will be, my country, my team, my home.

GREEN AND GOLD FOREVER.