Finally, the finals: All Blacks versus the Springbok, New Zealand versus South Africa. This is the Rugby World Cup taking place this time in stadiums all over France.  But for today, the big final, it is back to Paris in the Stade de France.

The playoff games have been going on for weeks now with nations that qualified from all over the world. Who knew that Georgia played rugby and they made the cut.? And Samoa and Tonga, who did excellently well.  In fact, in those South Pacific countries rugby is a big deal and they are big boys over there!

This championship was in full swing while I was in England in September and visiting family I got to see plenty of the games on TV.  Just a side note: I often land in England visiting family when some exciting gripping sports event is in full swing. The time before this visit it was Wimbledon and I remember the excitement of the Oxford/Cambridge boat race.  As politics become more and more distressing, I am developing a new appreciation for sports coverage.

Back to rugby, as my heritage in English, the sport has always been out there on my sidelines.  As school boys, my brothers played.  We would go to watch then and cheer them on.  I really never worked out what was going on.  It is a winter game and we would stand there, chilly, with the vivid green pitch before us (all that rain) and there was all this running around and in the distance, a big heap that was a pile of boys one on top of the other.  So rough and tough! One match my brother broke his nose, but went on playing till the end of the game before getting it seen to.

But with the World Cup TV coverage you get to see close up really what a very strange event this is. Unlike US-Canadian football, they have no protective armour. It is a battle field. But you feel the honour and chivalry among all this carnage and blood. There is the scrum where they all clutch each other, twined together, faces in each other  bums, grabbing their opponents clothing. They get into position and the ref shouts “set” and they all tighten in, the ball is put in and then somehow comes out one side or the other with the scrum half player there to scoop it up. They have five seconds to do something with it before the ref shouts “use it!”.  That is the formal scrum, and then what look like spontaneous scrums and these can move around like a great big crab.  The rules are so extensive that the ref is coaching the players as the game goes on usually without stopping play.  And the ball’s progress, the players can kick it forward but they can only pass it backwards.  So, running forward, you have to throw the ball the wrong way.

For this final, I was committed to cheering for South Africa, I have family connections with that part of the world. The valiant Springboks won, by one point. So close, both teams can be proud and it made for a great, exciting time.