Africa is a Country

On Saturday the Springboks, South Africa’s national rugby team, beat the All Blacks for the first time in ten years on New Zealand soil. South Africa played hard for the victory and was rewarded through a piece of individual brilliance by the scrumhalf, Rico Januarie, with a try in the last 10 minutes to win the game. At the end of the game you can see the delight on the players’ faces in the Youtube video below. The best moment in the highlight package comes at 4min59sec of the video (that’s 4:59). That’s when you can see the emotion — including pounding the table — and relief of Springbok coach, Peter de Villiers, when he realized his team had won the game. With the captain Victor Matfield sent off, South Africa had 14 men on the field at the time. The New Zealand commentator can only offer: “I think he [De Villiers] is really happy.” De Villiers had been publicly vilified as not good enough (the slur inside South Africa, is that he was an “affirmative action appointment”), including by a former All Black in the lead up to the game, but pulled off a remarkable coaching feat not managed by either of his illustrious predecessors: Jake White or Nic Mallet. Okay enough with the amateur punditry (and to discourage the hate-mail), let’s just enjoy the moment.

See it here. [via Youtube]