The Proteas Dale Steyn
On Saturday evening, South Africans would have been inwardly devastated after the national rugby side was defeated 20-18 by arch-rivals New Zealand in an epic Rugby World Cup semifinal showdown at Twickenham.
Earlier on Saturday, South Africa’s national football side suffered the ignominy of bowing out of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) at the hands of Angola. Bafana Bafana were eliminated from the Rwanda CHAN 2016 tournament by a 3-2 aggregate despite their second-leg 2-1 win in the Angolan capital Luanda. Their 2-0 defeat in the first-leg encounter at the Rand Stadium a week ago proved too much of a hurdle.
Further up the west coast of Africa on Saturday, South Africa’s Under-20 women’s team, Basetsana, went down 2-1 to the Falconets of Nigeria at the National Stadium Abuja in Nigeria. The match was a first-leg clash in the 2016 Papua New Guinea Women’s Under-20 World Cup qualifying.
South Africa will have a chance to rescue their qualifying campaign by turning the tables on Nigeria in the second leg at Makhulong Stadium, Tembisa, on November 7.
Whatever fortunes South Africa’s cricket may suffer over the next few weeks, 2016 will go down in the annals as the first time that the Proteas recorded back-to-back series wins on Indian soil. Prior to wrapping up the ODI series win on Sunday, the Proteas also bagged a T20 series win two weeks ago.
Saturday’s RWC semifinal defeat meant that the Springboks have lost both their 2015 matches against the All Blacks who also triumphed 27-20 in Johannesburg in July.
The Boks could salvage a measure of pride when they face Argentina’s Los Pumas in the RWC third-place play-off on Friday in London. In August, Argentina earned their first-ever Test victory (in 20 attempts) over South Africa with a stunning 37-25 victory in Durban. – African News Agency