Edyn's African Adventure

So back in May, I went to my first ever rugby match to see the national team, the Springboks, play a match against England up at Loftus Park in Pretoria. That was a warm up match prior to the Rugby World Cup. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament hosted by France from September 7 - October 20th. I had no idea Canada even had a team, let alone one that was in the world cup. Just goes to show you the difference to hear...rugby is a MAJOR deal here. Anyway, this was the Springboks year, and they cruised through the competition to end up in the final against...England! The first pool match was a blow out, with England being shut out, so everyone here was pretty confident of being the first country to win the Championship twice...the first being in 1995.

Jaclyn, Sahara and I went over to Primi Piatti Loft, a local pasta restaurant for the match and we were joined my co-worker, Kath Smith and her son, Brandon. The place was packed and we had a great seat. Of course we had to get Sahara all set up in her team colours in support of the Boks.

South Africa had had a pretty easy time of it through the tournament but the final was anything but a cake walk. It was an excellent match--a real nail biter despite the match earlier in the pool play. But, South Africa won the match 15 - 6 and everyone was singing and dancing and screaming and yelling in the restaurant. overall, fantastic to be here for something so wonderful for South Africa. Very reminiscent of Canada winning the Olymoic Gold medal in hockey a few years ago,