So today, I’m waking up at stupid o’clock to watch the first match between South Africa and Australia with a friend from Cape Town. We started watching matches together last year during the RWC Pool stages; I can remember us both watching the South Africa v Ireland game and sending each other voice messages. It was intense but fun.
I think it’s been two years now we have been chatting online, nearly every day, often several times and although we’ve banged heads at times, he’s one of the few that accepts a team defeat and remains stoical – quite refreshing in the world of sport which is usually male dominated and testosterone fuelled.
I was reminded of this by the current posts of social media of a certain South African lock “up close in the face of” certain Australian players, but it was nice that the account tempered this by a video of one of the individuals involved taking a can out of the fridge after the game and giving it to said lock. What goes on during a match ends once the final whistle is blown and that’s respectful. Rugby by and large is more respectful of other teams, but as regulars on here will know, I have butted heads with a few when they have gloated (which I consider to be quite different from celebrating).
With an All Blacks match v Argentine to follow, I’ve decided to cancel my yoga class and will go instead to do a work out later on. I’m not too bad today after the one of one glute training yesterday with one of the PTs at the gym, but getting back into daily training is something I need to build up to slowly.
Having said that, I’m quite pleased that I didn’t wake up to any aches today; perhaps the muscle memory has longer effects than I expected!
I’m told that the weekend is going to be decent weather wise, so wishing you all a lovely one !
