C’mon, feel the noise! Boks vs All Blacks in Soweto would make major impact

Even the most passive rugby watcher knows there are few experiences to rival watching the Springboks take on the All Blacks. Like an Ashes fixture on Boxing Day in Australia, the atmosphere is electric, the sides morph into something different and the fixture itself becomes an occasion. As far as sporting rivalries go, it’s pretty special.

The Rugby Championship means these fixtures come around quite often and South Africa’s recent win over the All Blacks at Ellis Park proved that it’s something that never gets old. They will play each other again next year, on 25 July, at a yet-to-be decided venue.

It has been announced there will be a single-round Rugby Championship fixture in South Africa next year due to the World Cup, so now the debate will begin on a venue for the clash.

Die Burger reported there is a strong push to host the Test in Cape Town, a city that has not seen the All Blacks since 2008.

WP president Thelo Wakefield told Die Burger there will be communication with Saru in order to bring the All Blacks test to Newlands because "Cape Town people deserve it". Part of the reason why there’s caution about the fixture returning here is due to the vast number of All Blacks supporters in the city.

Whether the Springboks play the All Blacks or the Stormers play the Crusaders, there’s almost a guarantee that there will be some sort of incident, however minor. While nobody has the right to tell anybody what team to support, the All Blacks fans often come across as deliberately antagonistic. Wakefield, though, brushed off this notion and insisted that the Boks have a huge backing in Cape Town.

"The support for the Boks here is overwhelming. We saw recently how the crowd backed the Boks in their game against the Wallabies. It will be the same against the All Blacks," he said.

Still, the incidents between the ‘Cape Crusaders’ and local All Blacks supporters often make the front pages. They cause much outrage.

In 2011, Danville Felkers, an All Blacks supporter in the Eastern Cape, spoke to IOL about his reasons for supporting the All Blacks.

“Rugby has died in the schools of the (poor) northern suburbs,” Felkers explained. “And we have played rugby in this region forever. But we have no facilities. There has been no investment from Saru, no upliftment, and we feel let down. Nothing has changed at grass roots. We don’t feel that Saru is engaging us. We don’t feel any affinity to Saru. We remain forgotten.”

Since then, there have been moves to better rugby engagement in the Eastern Cape. From the Eastern Province Kings, which has rubbed a few people up the wrong way, to the Grassroots Rugby programme, real and some superficial efforts are being made to engage the public and those who do not come from privileged schools and backgrounds.

The Grassroots Rugby venture aims to showcase rugby talent of disadvantaged young and adult players from the townships and rural areas of South Africa. They conduct holiday camps, coaching clinics and administrator capacity workshops.

An integral part of the New Zealand team from back in the day was the fact that they connected with the South African community. Back in 1970, the touring All Blacks team – with Captain Brian Lahore, Colin Meads, Syd Going, Chris Laidlaw, Bryan Williams and others – turned up at John Bisseker High School in East London. This came after a few of the school's rugby players snuck away to a training session and asked them to visit. The same team went on to visit townships in East London and engage with the kids while handing out their silver leaf badges. That kind of interaction can and has left a lasting impact on many from these communities. Those kinds of interactions is why the support for the All Blacks has been carried forward through generations.

It’s something that cannot and should not be ignored when selecting host venues for South Africa’s rugby matches. For a Test against the All Blacks, Soweto holds a unique opportunity. Using Soccer City or even Orlando Stadium as a venue not only eliminates the risk of being booed by fellow South Africans supporting the All Blacks, it offers a small, if shallow, connection to a growing support base.

When the Springboks visited the township in 2007 after their rugby World Cup victory, they encountered warm reception. The visit was initially called off, but a change of heart from South African rugby saw them drive through the streets and parade the trophy. It was a small gesture, but it meant a lot.

The face of South African rugby is still mostly white and debate rages on quota systems and apparent institutional racism when it comes to selecting of black players. Whether there is any proof in that is yet to be saliently put across, but the fact remains that the Springboks would connect far better with the public by playing at venues like Soweto. A handful of matches have already been hosted here, mostly to capacity crowds. Unlike Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and everywhere else in the country, Soweto does not benefit from regular Super Rugby fixtures, though. Thus exposure to the sport and inclusion of the community remains limited.

If South African rugby hopes to start taking small steps towards fully transforming then playing games in places such as Soweto need to form an integral part of their strategy. Of course this won’t solve the bigger issues, but at least it’s taking the right direction.

Conditions do play a part, of course, with Heyneke Meyer believing playing at sea level since the Highveld can be favourable to the All Blacks' kicking game.

"I probably shouldn't say this but a few years ago the highveld was a great advantage for us and always difficult for travelling sides. I don't believe that's the case these days,” said Meyer last week.

But, as the Boks showed when they recently beat the All Blacks at Ellis Park, even those beliefs can be shattered when they’re having a good day out. DM

Photo: South Africa's Bryan Habana (C) tackles New Zealand's Jerome Kaino (L) during the Rugby Championship test match between South Africa and New Zealand played at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, 04 October 2014. EPA/KIM LUDBROOK