Life reflects Rugby, or does Rugby reflect life? Both involve decision making which can result in a sweet outcome or a big team tackle and possible turn over. The boys on the park know that and as a group of travelling supporters so do we.
The first poor decision we made was Sun City, seemingly shut for winter…golf FULLY BOOKED, restaurants FULLY BOOKED, Safari FULLY BO…..oh, no hold on, I think there may be some spaces…. No, sorry, FULLY BOOKED. But, as with Rugby those poor decisions can be counter-rucked and poor possession turned into good ball, which is exactly what happened in Squires (namesake bar) on our first night in Sun City.
A tumultuous 3 hour sing song including hits from ABBA to ZZ Top and every rugby song in between, accompanied by Hoppy on the Anthrax-giving Djembe drum, the great ex Lion’s backrower ‘Terry-Rocky-Rocking Jonny D’ – John Taylor (available for weddings £130 or £150 if you are 20 miles away from Caerphilly) and masterfully marshalled by ‘Jumper-less-Joe’ Gojey.
Wales population had grown by a few numbers, as by the end of the night every man woman child Baboon and Zebra were all singing those immortal words "We’re Welsh and we know we are!", a classic night. Notwithstanding the ‘FULLY BOOKED’, I am sure Sun City is a lovely place when it’s open J (I’m writing this as we roll away on the bus with some wag humming the theme to the Great Escape).
We are all starting to feel we are on the home leg now. The ominous looming of post tour traumatic stress syndrome is becoming a small yet ever growing blip on the radar. We still have something extremely important to conclude however – namely, this series of Test matches.
The combination of Riki Flutey on dry ground partnering an in form Tommy Bowe (so far pretty much the supporters darling of the tour) is one to whet the appetite, and with the man mountain Simon Shaw rampaging last week in Pretoria, all of us are sure that we are ready to witness another great battle. Surely not one that can match last week’s intensity but certainly with the belief in the squad to a man, we have the strength and character to win at Ellis (Coca-Cola) Park on Saturday.
The tour has been marked not only with Rugby related incident, but of course by front page news of Michael Jackson’s untimely passing. We are all off to Nelson Mandela Square tomorrow to witness and hopefully partake in a mass Moon-Walk in front of the former Presidents statue. The clichés are limitless, but my biggest hope is that it’s not the only Thriller in town this weekend.
Did I tell you the one about the……….
