Pass the ball to Brian

South Africa is the International Rugby World Champions of 2007.

On Saturday, 20 October 2007 the Springbok Team won the William Ellis Cup by beating England 15 to 6 in Paris. It would take time for this reality to sink in. Somehow, the elation of the moment when the final whistle went was not fully realised. It felt like just another match in the run-up to the final somewhere out there in the future. But this time it was the real McKay.

Given the elaborate media ignorance in the USA of rugby, South Africans; English and other foreign rugby fans were gathered in select pubs in Cambridge and Boston to follow the game on satellite TV.

A sprinkling of English fans stood around in clumps in the pub looking quite dejected. I caught a glimpse of Prince William's distraught face on TV as the cameras panned the crowd on the stands in Paris. Moments after the final whistle I walked over to the English fans that had braved the large crowd of rowdy South Africans to follow the match on the telly. I shook hands with them and thanked England for standing their ground to give the fans a tense and tightly fought final. It was a civilised exchange of mutual acknowledgement.

The Springboks had come a long way since their previous World Cup victory in 1995. In between the victorious moments were the Big Slump in which the team suffered several humiliating defeats against various international teams. A lot of political wrangling and interference played into the uncertain direction of the team during the slump. But throughout, South Africa started to gather behind the team and symbol of what was once the archetypal icon of White South Africa.

This year, the main star of the team packed with sharp players was Brian Habana - one of the wings in the back-line and a non-white player of exceptional flair, speed and intelligence by all standards. So much so, the nation's jesters had come up with a joker's sound clip of the team's game plan: "Pass the ball to Brian."

The humour in the foregoing is typical South African and explaining it risks loosing the essence in translation between cultures.

The match was not spectacular or heroic in any manner. The two teams were quite evenly matched and no tries were scored. The ball got to Habana only to be bogged down by England's strong defence. Matters were decided on penalty kicks.

We had an early tense moment when the satellite feed was disrupted at the start of the match. Frantic phone calls rang out across Cambridge only to discover the feed was broken all over. We had a riot on hand. Three hurrays to the technicians who restored the crucial satellite feed and the peace within minutes.

I concluded the glorious Saturday with a group of fellow South Africans, holding a braai in true tradition as well as we could on foreign shores. After midnight, as we gathered on the street, as tradition would have it to see off one another, we played "Pass the ball to Brian" on the host's fancy cellphone and laughed hysterically at our nation's glorious silliness.

[Final championship statistics]