A Bok win will restore national pride

Today, grown men will cry … tears of joy and relief on one side; on the other, grief and disappointment.

For those 46 men on the field and their two head coaches, this Rugby World Cup final will be one of the high points of their lives, on a par with getting married and having their first child.

Behind that very visceral, human side of what is so much more than just a game, is national pride.

England, as a nation, has been around a lot longer than SA and, beset as it is by the woes of Brexit, it is still a place where patriotism thrives. Whether in victory, or in defeat, the English are always unified.

SA’s famed “rainbow nation” unity and the wave of euphoria we surfed after winning the World Cup under the eyes of Madiba in 1995, are withering under the scorching anger of racism and inequality.

Those blights on society have pursued the team to Japan, following the allegations of a racist assault levelled against Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth after a bar fracas on the West Coast earlier this year.

Some prominent doomsayers believe even if SA lifts the Webb Ellis Cup, nothing much will change.

And that will, essentially, be true. No sporting team, no matter how good, can create jobs, end corruption and close the terrible gulf between rich and poor. These are the things which will sink SA.

But what the Springboks proved in 1995 is that nothing succeeds like success and South Africans love winners.

We also need winners, to prove to ourselves – and we are our worst critics, most of the time – that we can still be an example to the world.

A win today will do more than any politician, or any economic rescue plan, to put this country back on track.

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