18 October, 2007

Although the BBC Rugby World Cup blog took a lot of flack for wasting the British public’s money, I was grateful that they finally spent money on something worthwhile. And Ben Dirs has proved that with his brilliant post capturing the entire spirit of this magical World Cup. Go and read it right now, to either reminisce over the time you spent in France or to realise what exactly you missed out on, simply the best World Cup EVER!

Eventually I have secured tickets to the World Cup Final.

This is going to be the culmination of a 4 year chapter in my life. I left South Africa four years ago so I could come to London and work for six months before embarking on a month long trip to Australia to watch the World Cup in 2003 . Now, four years later, I have been on a  month long soiree in France for the  World Cup 2007 culminating in what I hope will be a victory for the Springboks on Saturday.

Could my time in the UK be up, I suppose it depends on what happens Saturday!

The biggest game of rugby in the last 4 years is almost upon us. I am going over to Paris tomorrow still without tickets but highly confident that I will be in the Stade de France to witness South Africa’s crowning as World Champions!

Finals are particularly difficult games to call, but I believe it will be a very tight game and as with the Argentina game I think we should put England under pressure and play a territory game as I don’t believe they have the skill to take us on, whereas if they make a mistake we have the ability to capitalise out wide.

Easily the most important player for SA on the day will be Butch James. I have said it for years, Butch James is by far the best flyhalf in SA and there is no way we would be where we are without him. He is the best distributer of the ball in world rugby and has played magnificently during the entire world cup. If on Saturday he tackles well and controls the game like he has done throughout the tournament the Springboks will strangle England and win convincingly.

That being said though, if Percy Montgomery has an off day with the boot and the team starts the first 20 minutes nervously we may be in for a tough ride.

It is John Smits destiny and that of the rest of this team that the trophy will be South Africas this weekend. I hope like hell we go out and play like it is ours. Come on Bokke!!!