The year has grown!! 2015 Rugby World Cup

Although October is a hot month, we have received some rains, although not enough for farming purposes. With the heat wave, we had a few days of even ‘water rationing’ in the suburbs. With Christmas decorations slowly creeping in, it is rather Halloween decorations and accessories that are filling the stores shelves.  The month has seen the release of Oscar Pistorius from prison and fortunately the week has been marred with university student’s protests who have kept the media more busy with their activities and the focus in a way away from the paralympian.

But despite and in spite of all this, there has been a great big tournament taking place in England, with the Queen Elizabeth hosting dinner for all the teams that participated at one point. It must have been an honour and a great privilege. The stadiums have been filled with spectators. Of course the stadiums are some of the world class needless to say.

We have seen countries like Namibia, South Africa from the African continent represented with Namibia performing dismally. Canada, Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, USA, Georgia, Romania, Japan, Italy, France all representing the Northern Hemisphere.  We also had Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand which are more or less Island nations if you will and Australia, Argentina, Uruguay representing the Southern Hemisphere if you will.

The tournament has seen the host nation England being knocked out in the early stages at group level. It was impressive to have countries like Romania, Georgia, Fiji and Tonga in the tournament including Japan.

South Africa came back from their initial loss by 2 points to Japan and last weekend saw them secure a place in the Quarter  finals which kick off this coming Saturday(24^th October) after a brilliant ‘Try’ by the team captain just minutes before the end of the game securing them 23 points to 19 against their opponent Wales in a 23-19 score. Ireland loss to Argentina 20-43 points was also a big upset but saw the last of the northern hemisphere countries out of the tournament. Scotland played the Wallybeeees (Australia) making it to the quarter finals 34-35. New Zealand beat France 62-13 deserving their title as reigning champions.

With that in mind it now leaves us with just four teams being South Africa, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia all falling in the Southern Hemisphere. It will be a huge battle for all four teams but only one of them will be crowned as the 2015 Rugby World Cup Campion. As we count the hours to the Quarter Finals we are bracing ourselves to a both physical and mental eighty minutes for each match at the least.

Who will it be that will take the first, second and third places? Were that still remains to be known as we support the last four teams in this very physical game to the Quarter finals. We have seen great talent, skills and manoeuvre as well as bravery; it would help each one of us to master that conquering spirit in our day to day lives.  We have been entertained by some of the most inspiring warrior dances and of course listened to the national anthems of all these countries that have had the honours of show casing their national flags in the world of Rugby with more than 2,200 score made in the tournament thus far.

We have seen them cry be it a win or a loss, injuries, yellow cards and the constant jubilation of the fans. Wishing the remaining four teams all the best as it remains to be known who will play in the finals.