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CHAMPIONS! One of my favourite songs by one of my favourite bands, Counting Crows, is called ‘Raining in Baltimore’. I’ve been thinking about and listening to that song a lot ahead of Saturday’s ‘decider’ in Baltimore between the Springboks and All Blacks.
I’m bringing this up immediately, almost out of nowhere, because what’s going to happen on Saturday night is the Springboks are going to be ‘Reigning in Baltimore’! See what I did there?
I am quietly confident of this (and will happily eat humble pie if I’m wrong) for a few reasons, largely because the Springboks came back from losing the first Test match. We lost that one, as well as our number one spot in the world.
This meant that not only did we have to win the next game to keep our hopes of winning the series alive, but we had to do so under immense pressure AND against the number one team in the world! And what did we do? We did just that!
And then, at 1-all, we all went to FNB Stadium in Soweto under a cloud of low-flying planes and accusations of walking around in scrums. And what did we do? We forced the All Blacks to walk so far back in one scrum that we were awarded a penalty try!
I’m not going to lie, I found a short video of that scrum on X, and I’ve watched it at least one hundred and twenty million, three hundred and two hundred thousand and four times. AND, I was at the game and saw it live!
Wait, give me a few minutes. I want to watch it a few more times.
@ruckrealm Yellow right after tho 😂#rugby #springboksvsallblacks #rugbyunion #fyp #CapCut ♬ Welcome To My Crib - Slowed - EU93N
Now let’s discuss the fourth and final Test match in Baltimore on Saturday night at 23h00 SA time.
Cheslin Kolbe is out with a broken jaw. So, Rassie has made two changes: Damian Willemse comes in at fullback for Kolbe, and Morné van den Berg starts at scrumhalf ahead of Cobus Reinach, simply because ‘Krappies’ came off the bench last week and played like he owned the place.
Rassie’s whole logic: it’s 2-1, don’t fix what isn’t broken, unless it’s Cheslin’s jaw. In fact, please fix it. Please fix it fast!
Finally, my Champions, there will be absolutely no complaints anywhere about the 11 pm kick-off on Saturday night. Do what you need to do to be awake and shouting for the Boks when the match kicks off.
In fact, I’ve been to enough South African braais to know that we have NO excuse when it comes to staying up late.
At the average South African braai, the following happens: The fire is lit at whatever time. It’s a big fire. There are at least four bags of wood lying in proximity. Let’s call them ‘The Bomb Squad’.
We add more wood. We add more wood. We add more wood. We add more wood.
It’s as if we’re on a construction site building log cabins.
At 9 pm, someone takes the meat out of the freezer. At 10 pm, someone puts a piece of boerewors and a pork rasher on the grid. You get excited because you might finally eat something.
No, it’s for the kids.
There’s still another bag of wood here!
Long story short: There is no excuse. You light the fire whenever you like. But you take the meat off the grid at 23h40 to eat at halftime!
Champions, Springboks by seven.
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