The Champs Are Here!

Siya Kolisi and his men have given South Africans something to celebrate with their triumphant Rugby World Cup run

YOU know the expression “It’s just a game”? Well, anyone who’s ever uttered those words will surely have eaten them along with the leftover biltong after one of the most spectacular sporting feats in recent memory.

Because if ever a match was more than just a game, it’s the one that galvanized and unified a nation at the Yokohama Stadium in Japan on Saturday 2 November.

The Springboks had so much more to play for than World Cup glory: in their hands rested the dreams of a country beset by challenges and hardship. We needed something to show us that, if we work together, we can be winners.

And when Siya Kolisi lifted the Webb Ellis trophy, surrounded by his roaring teammates as fireworks exploded above him, the jubilation reverberated across South Africa.

The Boks may have gone into the final as the underdogs, but victory meant so much more to them than it did to the Roses, England’s formidable team.

As The Guardian’s rugby writer Andy Bull put it, “it is not necessarily the sharpest, fittest, fastest or strongest team that wins, but the one who wants it most.

“Listening to South Africa’s captain and coach talk about what this victory meant in the minutes after they won it, you began to understand exactly what England were up against.

“And the way the Springboks were thinking about it, England had lost the match before it even began.”

Coach Rassie Erasmus’ words spoke straight to the heart of it. “Rugby should be something that creates hope. But you can’t create hope just by talking about it; hope is not something you say in a beautiful tweet.