rugby
Johannesburg - Thousands of Facebook users have changed into "Facebokke" over the weekend.
Facebook groups supporting the Springbok rugby team on the social network scene are popping up by the hundreds if one types in keywords such as Bokke, Springbok, or rugby.
One of the biggest fan groups titled "Rugby World Cup 2007: I support South Africa", had more than 24 000 members by Sunday afternoon.
"Well done, Boks! We're proud of you. Jake, thanks for holding on through it all. We are the champions!" wrote Stacy Nortje, one of the members of the group.
Some of the groups that were formed before Saturdays final match had names such as "My blood is green!" "South Africa to stuff the Poms" and "Bokke gaan gatskop die naweek" (The Boks are going to kick butt this weekend).
Other groups sang the praises of the Boks after the game, with headings such as "The World Cup comes home", or taunted the English with questions such as "Dear Mr Englishman: Who's your daddyyyyyyyyy??!!?"
Quite a few of the Facebook groups were dedicated to rugby hero Bryan Habana, among them : "Give the ball to Bryan Habana" and "Habana for President".
One user even created a profile for the Webb Ellis Trophy, with a photo of the Cup, and just like other users, Webb Ellis has a birthday, religious views, hobbies, interests, favourite TV programmes and friends.
His favourite song, according to the profile, is Shosoloza, favourite pastime, "looking good in the SARU offices" and his favourite quote is "On da udder hand".
Other groups were taking bets, or accepting challenges, in support of the Boks.
Some of these groups included one that promised to stop smoking if the Boks won (more than 100 members) one that grew their beards for the Boks (99 members) and a group that promised to shave their heads if the Boks won (with 69 members).
YES PLEASE! World Champions once again. Four years worth of work not "wasted" and the pride of a nation, plus Johnny gets no prizes from the Queen this time, and all the "experts" on Sky get to eat humble pie for breakfast tomorrow.
Jo'burg has gone bezerk. People all over the streets vuvuzella'ing, waving flags and generally jumping around like top class idiots. Good to see everybody this happy about something again.
The match was really horrible though. I'm not sure it was very good for my heart. 80 minutes of freaking out basically, and in the end we beat them 15-6. It's a bloody good thing this only happens every four years as I could definitely not handle it any more often than that.
Congratulations the entire Springbok team!
So today is Rugby World Cup final day, and the Springboks have made it this far. We're set to play against England, who we beat convincingly in the early rounds, not letting them score even one point. Unless something goes spectacularly wrong we really should win. This is however the Rugby World Cup though, and anything can happen. We've already seen New Zealand and Australia have their days where something went wrong, and both were knocked out before the semi-finals even.... so let's hold thumbs.
What really prompted this post, however, was my drive earlier to go and get a hair cut. Jo'burg is buzzing with support for boys in Paris. Everybody from a twenty year old black guy in a small Fiat who had painted onto his rear window "MY BLOED IS GROEN" to the family of hardcore Afrikaners all dressed in their Springbok branded clothing with the little ones on the back of a bakkie waving South African flags, to the rich old guy in a fancy BM who had attached a flag to his car.... they seem to have one thing on their minds, and that is us bring that World Cup home tonight. This is the first time I've seen what we saw in 1995 when we won the World Cup. It even makes me lumpy throated.
I think it's great and I absolutely love it, and I really hope they win, not just for the entire country but really for them, all of them, including those that aren't actually players. This is what they've worked towards for the last four years solid, and they deserve to win it.
GO BOKKE!!!!!!
