THE Rugby World Cup is going to be a very hard act to=20 follow. It is a point of national focus which has=20 ranged from the sublime of the emotion-charged opening=20 at Newlands in Cape Town exactly a month ago, to the=20 farcical Leon Schuster song celebrating the South=20 African team, Hier Kommie Bokke.
In all, organisers estimate that just over a million of=20 the total 1,38-million seats for the 16-nation=20 tournament will have been filled with people paying=20 anything between R44 and R220 for a chance to watch one=20 of the 32 matches.
The exercise will raise something approaching a=20 staggering R100-million from tickets alone, and=20 probably half as much again from the trade in T-shirts,=20 ashtrays and other paraphernalia.=20
More important than the eventual bottom line, though,=20 has been the thread which has drawn the diverse=20 interests of this rainbow nation towards the fortunes=20 of 15 men in green-and-gold jerseys.
Viewership figures in this country have still to be=20 fully analysed, but indications are that the TV sets=20 have been switched on to rugby as often in Soweto as in=20 Sandton and as enthusiastically in Phola Park as=20
While this new-found interest will pump much needed=20 blood into the oft-criticised lifelessness of rugby’s=20 development programme, there has been a spin-off –=20 related directly to TV viewership — of arguably far=20 greater importance.
For, intriguingly, the World Cup has brought the white=20 minority closer to the ideals of our new democracy, by=20 the almost unreserved support of all sectors of the=20 community for the squad who espouse the ethic of “one=20 team, one country”, than any past political assurances.
This has been led from the front by our state=20 president, who embraced the South African team as “my=20 sons”, donning a cap adorned with the leaping Springbok=20 emblem and putting his unreserved support behind the=20 side — when, in the past, as he admits, he would=20 always have supported the opposing team.
In this, the president has not been alone. The=20 scandalous barrage of bottles which rained down on the=20 “non-white” sector of the stand at Ellis Park during=20 the visit of the 1960 All Blacks because the=20 disenfranchised had the timerity to cheer the New=20 Zealanders is part of the legacy of division the game=20 has historically symbolised for the citizens of this=20
For many, this legacy will take a lifetime to erase.=20 For others, like the president, the present leads=20 directly to a better and brighter future. The Rugby=20 World Cup has been an enormous success as a catalyst=20 for the kind of national unity which is possible in=20 South Africa.
The fact that Mandela would don the badge which was for=20 so many years a symbol of apartheid is just one sign of=20
For some, Francois Pienaar’s insistence as captain that=20 all the members of the team know the words of Nkosi=20 Sikelel’ iAfrika as well as they do Die Stem has put=20 the game beyond the pale.
For the majority, though, this has been cause for=20 celebration, an indication that our internal emphases=20 are indeed changing from the narrow constraints of the=20 old towards an all-embracing acceptance of the new.
Along these lines, too, it has been heartening to note=20 the acceptance of C=99te d’Ivoire in the heart of=20 Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging country. The crowds at=20 Rustenburg’s Olympia Park took the luckless Africans=20 into their hearts, waving Ivorian flags and supporting=20 them in both face-paint and numbers.
Equally heartening has been the national response –=20 through the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu),=20 the Chris Burger Fund and a national hotel chain, among=20 others –to the sad plight of Max Brito’s tragic=20 fracture of the neck and subsequent paralysis of the=20 Ivorian player.
The same applied to the Japanese team in Bloemfontein,=20 the capital of the province which used to give people=20 of Asian descent no more than the glancing courtesy of=20 a 24-hour right of passage.
It is as if this country had awoken from a dreamless=20 sleep and suddenly discovered that there are others of=20 whatever lineage worthy of support who come from beyond=20 our borders.
This has not held true, however, when the South=20 Africans have been involved. There the support has been=20 as one-eyed and partisan as it always was, from the=20 euphoria of South Africa’s 27-18 win over Australia in=20 the opening burst, to the nail-biting vasbyt of the=20 last quarter hour’s siege by the French at the rain- lashed King’s Park semi-final last week.
It has been as if the game which once typified white=20 domination had magically drawn all sectors towards the=20 centre and opened a new path, shown a new direction.
The nation has agonised with James Dalton and Pieter=20 Hendriks, and, to judge by the fury of the phone-ins to=20 talk radio, failed to grasp the fact that they had been=20 found guilty as charged after the bloody brawl at Boet=20 Erasmus Stadium in the game against Canada.
The country rejoiced in the fact that Chester Williams=20 came back into the side he had disqualified himself=20 from (due to injury) before the start of the=20 tournament. And we went into a frenzy of delight when=20 the winger celebrated his return with four superb tries=20 in the combat zone of the 42-14 victory against Western=20
Whether this jubilation will hold in the all-too-likely=20 event of an All Black victory in the final at Ellis=20 Park remains to be seen. But the game, the people and=20 the country as a whole will surely have benefitted=20 enormously from the whole experience.