Four unforgettable months of South African sport

by Freddie Hiney

There are few things more exciting, anxious and nail-biting than watching your nation in a knock-out game of a major tournament. For South African sports fans, the emotions ran rife for four months – from rugby to cricket to soccer. Let’s rewind to November 24 last year.

Paris was the setting, South Africa versus New Zealand the match-up. And if winning a World Cup wasn’t enough motivation, then edging out the others to become the most successful rugby nation certainly was.

History was on the line. Whoever won was about to go somewhere no other country had gone: four-time World Cup champions.

Pieter-Steph du Toit’s gladiator performance and Handré Pollard’s marksman-kicking inspired the Springboks to a nail-biting 12-11 victory. It was a crunch match that entailed a red card, several sin bins, monstrous tackles and one try.

Astonishingly, they won each elimination game (against France, England, and New Zealand) by one point.

🥇 𝕎𝕆ℝ𝕃𝔻 ℂℍ𝔸𝕄ℙ𝕀𝕆ℕ𝕊 🥇

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚋𝚘𝚔𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 #RWC2023 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚖𝚙𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜!#SABCSportRugby #RWCFinal pic.twitter.com/gJWSp1CW74

— SABC Sport (@SABC_Sport) October 28, 2023

Nineteen days later, in India, the Proteas, led by Quinton de Kock, were playing Australia for a spot in the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup Final. A milestone they’ve never achieved. Ultimately, David Miller’s 101 off 116 balls wasn’t enough to withstand Travis Head’s brilliance. Australia’s bowling was formidable.

Although they didn’t prevail, it was a different side to a year before. Finally, there was a team to get excited about.

Next up, Bafana Bafana, who, after failing to qualify for the past three Fifa World Cups and progress past the round of 16 in an African Cup of Nations (Afcon) since 2000, hadn’t given fans much to cheer about.

It was a pleasant surprise when Ronwen Williams’s penalty heroics sent tournament favourites Morocco packing en route to the semi-final.

They went on to lose a tense shootout against Nigeria on February 7, but finally, nationwide faith was restored.

Ronwen Williams has become the first goalkeeper to ever save 4 penalties in a single TotalEnergies AFCON shootout. 🤯🇿🇦#TotalEnergiesAFCON2023 pic.twitter.com/35g7qPeB2D

— CAF_Online (@CAF_Online) February 4, 2024

South African sport went from questionable to two semi-finalists and a World Cup champion within four months. What is going on here?

Bafana Bafana and the Proteas entered their respective tournaments as underdogs. The tournament became France, Ireland or New Zealand’s to lose.

While South African Rugby attempted to achieve greatness, the Proteas hoped to redeem themselves after successive forgettable campaigns. In 2019, they recorded three wins (out of nine), followed by one win (out of four games) in 2016. A gloomy threepeat was now on the line.

Twelve years had passed since they had progressed to the elimination rounds, a time when Graeme Smith led out the likes of Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn. Superstars were abundant, but they stumbled at the quarter-final.

In fact, they’ve never surpassed the semi-finals, losing five in a row (and counting) – coming closest against Australia in 1999, in what is widely regarded as one of the greatest one-day matches.

Although a shock defeat to the Netherlands in last year’s outing materialised, South Africa seemed threatening from the get-go, thrashing Sri Lanka and Australia by more than 100 runs in their opening games. After the unfathomable Dutch match, all doubts were swept under the rug after a dominant 229-run win against previous winners England, before dispatching Bangladesh for 382 runs.

Quinton de Kock, who averaged 59.40 runs a game over the tournament, scored 174 of them. They were soon humbled by India, scoring only 83 of the 326 required. They qualified comfortably for the semi-finals, an outcome that hadn’t occurred since 2007.

In spite of the fact that the Proteas and Bafana Bafana fell short, faith and support have blossomed. For years, subpar results have become the norm; now, supporters tune in with optimism and pride.

Between rugby, cricket and soccer, the soccer fan base has experienced the most heartache, failing to qualify for multiple major tournaments.

South Africa’s last Fifa World Cup outing was in 2010. Before that, it was 2002 and 1998; they’ve never advanced past the group stage on all three occasions.

However, they have a brighter history in the Afcon edging out Tunisia 2-0 in the 1996 final in front of 80 000 fans on home soil. From then on, their best chance of winning came against Egypt in the 1998 Afcon final, hosted in Morocco. Bafana Bafana lost 2-0. It would be, until February this year, the last final they played.

Since then, apart from a third-place finish in 2000, they’ve either failed to qualify for the competition (2010, 2012, 2017 and 2021), struck out during the group stage (2004, 2006, 2008 and 2015) or exited at the quarter-finals (2002, 2013 and 2019).

After their maiden victory in 1996, they went from second place in 1998 to a third-place finish in 2000, reached the quarter-finals in 2002, and then either failed to qualify or made it out of the group stage for the subsequent five campaign.

The 2023 Afcon was the first time – since 2000 – Bafana Bafana had a significant run for the championship; a nation was beginning to believe they’ve got hidden gems all over the pitch, from Percy Tau and Teboho Mokoena to Mothobi Mvala and Ronwen Williams.

More Bafana Bafana dancing content? Yes please. 🥰#TotalEnergiesAFCON2023 | @BafanaBafana pic.twitter.com/ZcdphLMy3v

— CAF_Online (@CAF_Online) February 4, 2024

Rugby is the nation’s poster sport, and they have the accolades to prove it; since the 1990s, they’ve won a World Cup every decade (1995, 2007, 2019 and last year).

Even the best endures wobbles of uncertainty and despair, just like the most accurate kicker will eventually miss the poles. That didn’t happen in Handré Pollards’ 2023 World Cup campaign, though, which included a composed but crucial 50m conversion during the dying minutes to put the Springboks one point up against England in the semi-final.

Rugby is the nation’s pride and joy, uniting a divided country while casting a shadow over cricket and soccer with its star players and blockbuster matches. However, as cricket and soccer become more competitive, South Africa’s sport is flourishing with life, and you can extend the optimism to its athletics and netball too.

🟡🟢 RESULT | #SAvIND 🇿🇦🇮🇳

Not meant to be for the Proteas in Barbados but a campaign to be proud of. #WozaNawe #BePartOfIt#OutOfThisWorld #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/IIR3JziGho

— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) June 29, 2024

But, if progression is to ensue, significant investment at grass-root levels is needed. We see it with rugby – boasting some of the finest elementary programmes in the world – but why not soccer and cricket? The former isn’t included in most school curriculums, and both have experienced prolonged periods of struggle, which can’t be said for the Springboks.

A clear correlation between the success of a sport and the funding it receives is evident.

What’s concerning, and in some ways motivating is that most players have risen to stardom from a country that offers little support – imagine if this wasn’t the case.

* Freddie Hiney is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

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