Die Bokke!

I'm not a South African rugby fan. In fact, while I respect their strength as a Tri-Nations opponent, I generally root against them.

However, for one week only, I'll be cheering for the Springboks. They play England in the Rugby World Cup 2007 final, and it would be a very, very bad thing for the sport if England claimed victory.

Consider this:

1. Albeit legal, England play with negative tactics which go against the spirit of the game (defined in the first page of the law book as scoring as many points as possible). On the other hand, South Africa have finally developed a truly expansive and skillful brand of play. There were a lot of columnists post-RWC 2003 suggesting field goals should be dropped from three points to one; at the time I reduced this to sour grapes after a genuinely good English side claimed victory over Australia. However, with the amount of mindless kicking we've seen in an otherwise entertaining world cup, I've come around.
2. There hasn't been another world cup where such an undeserving team had a shot at being the champion (defending a previous title, no less!) From the day after England won the previous title four years ago up until the quarter final victory over Australia two weeks ago, England have been consistently bad -- either underachieving or losing against comparatively weak opponents. There is no question that in previous world cups that the victor of the tournament has been at least considered in the world top 3. On the other hand, the Springboks have been slowly building in strength and ranking, consistently improving their team over the last 4 years. (No mean feat for Jake White, considering the union and race politics in South Africa).
   
3. I just couldn't handle yet another four years of bragging rights to England!

Unfortunately, the game will probably be on in Australia at a time too late/early for a Braai...