Believe it or not, in High School, I was a rugby fanatic. I was one of those High School jocks in training always guaranteed a place in the starting line up of our junior teams, partly because I was average size until we all got to grade 10 and then I don’t know where everyone started rushing off too but they just started growing and growing. That’s when I decided that maybe drama and the arts were a better option. At least my torso being the size of someone’s thigh didn’t matter during the Amahlathi Arts Festival. 

With that said, I understand fully how important a home crowd is when playing. When playing at home, 15 gents and gee’s feel like total rockstars. You feel like the guys who spin cars outside ichisa nyama. The guys are whistling, the girls are screaming, the drums are beating and the rugby jezabels are eyeing and you know it’s all for you. You’re in a movie. You’re the starring. The adrenalin lifts you so much, that you start doing impossible things. You run faster, you jump higher, you swear harder and you feel no pain. Basically you’re The Terminator. Now, we know that PE is a rugby loving city. 

The EP Mighty Elephants are based there and more importantly one the schools rugby giants, Grey Colleague (I soooo wish I went to school there) call PE home. So how on earth did The All Blacks rock up in PE to a crowd of 2000, just to welcome them? It gets worse. The 45 000 seater Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is predicted to be overwhelmed by All Black supporters. Mxim. We need to re-evaluate our priorities in life yazi. So many people are always quick to bash the bokke, the only team out of the big 3 in SA to ever win a world championship, talking about colour codes and how many black jelly babies we have in the packet and say “ I support the All Blacks”. Ngobani ezi All Blacks? Isiduko sabo ngobani? Ziphi intlanti zamakwabo? What I know of the All Blacks is that they came here in 1995 and Jonah Lomu took one of our ladies back with him to New Zealand. 

These guys are like the guys who come to eloction, sit in our braai places and charm our best girls. How do they get a heroes welcome? When it comes, to the colour of the boks and how many black faces we have on the field, I trust Mr Razzmatazz, Fikile Mbalula in the Sport’s Ministry and he’ll do whats necessary to make sure the Boks are what they are suppose to be. Considering that this is one of the last games the boks will play on home ground before they go to France and face Ras Dumisani again in the World Cup, how about we go and show the boys a bit of love. Let’s bring the Terminators and The Rocky’s out of the boys. 

Even if we don’t fill up the stadium with green and gold jerseys cos elements have have already gone and invaded that space, but let’s make sure that the Bok bus will have a hard time getting to the stadium because of the throngs of people there. These are our boys. Our Champs.