(I am only six months late writing this)…
It was 13 years ago now that I first saw the Springboks at Murrayfield. That match in 2011 was in fact the last time we lost to the Scots though we would recover that tour with a win against the English the following week. I was there too, having spent close on a week’s food budget in India to get a ticket!
In the more than a decade since, having moved to the UK in 2012, I’ve been fortunate to follow the Boks on many end-of-year-tours around the UK and Ireland and across the channel in France and Italy. These weekends with some of your best friends are unbelievably special and great fun.
The 2024 end-of-year tour took the Boks to Murrayfield (Edinburgh), Twickenham (London) and the Millennium Stadium (Cardiff).
Springboks vs. Scotland – 10/11/2024
The opening game against the Scots was on a Sunday, like in 2014 when Dyl and I spent a marvellous weekend with Nat and Spiro and visited Stirling Castle. Having taken Romy to her Saturday morning swimming lesson, I was on an early evening flight into Edinburgh, arriving in good time to enjoy a few beers with the many folks in town.
It was a fairly early start after a late night and the full Scottish Breakfast certainly went down a treat! It’s a 45 min walk to the stadium from the city centre and as is customary, we stopped in at a few pubs en route.
I’ve said in many previous blogs that Murrayfield is one of my favourite places to watch rugby given its history, the passion of the Scots and of course the anthem – ‘O Flower of Scotland (led by a lone piper on the roof). It’s impossible not to join in when the band stops and the 68,000-strong crowd sings the second verse and by now, I know all the words.
It was an entertaining first half and despite being down at one point, we led 19 – 9 at the break courtesy of 2 tries from Makazole Mapimpi and a third from Thomas du Toit. Scotland were reduced to 14 mid-way through the first half but that only seemed to motivate them.
The 14 Scots came out firing in the second half and despite putting us under immense pressure, were unable to score a try. They closest they got was to narrow it to a four point game (19 – 15) before two Pollard penalties and a late Jasper Wiese score sealed a 32 – 15 victory.
Springboks vs. England – 16/11/2024
The following weeks the Boks came to London and after swimming with Romy in the morning, I headed to Waterloo to meet the boys for a few beers. With beers and biltong in hand, we jumped on the train to Twickers and en route to the stadium, no more than a 10 min walk, we stopped at our usual spot for a delicious wors roll (I would buy another one on the walk back!).
It was a pulsating first half full of tries. The game began badly with England scoring in only the 4th minute. We replied with a hat-trick of tries in 10 minutes before England pulled one back before half time to only trail by 2 (19 – 17).
The second half was a tad quieter as we traded penalties before Cheslin Kobe scored our fourth try to stretch the lead to two scores (29 -20). Despite playing the final 10 minutes with only 14 men, we held on for another magnificent and incredibly satisfying win.
Springboks vs. Wales – 23/11/2024
Our final game of the tour and season was at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. We were back in South Africa to celebrate Maggie’s first birthday so I would watch the game with my old man on the sofa with far fewer beers but a lot more biltong and droewors! It was a comfortable win against a poor Welsh side experiencing their worst ever season to wrap up a November clean sweep and another fabulous season for the double World Champions.
