Rugby fervour, Doha style!

I attended the rugby screening at the Doha RFC to write a little article for our magazine. To keep with the celebratory mood in here, i thought i might as well as paste it here. Feedbacks are more than welcome.

SITTING among almost two hundred people, watching the tight World Cup final between South Africa and England, live on a big screen in the heart of Doha, can be an exhilarating feeling.

With faces painted in the green of the Springboks and whites of the Lions, the fans enjoyed an incredible evening filled with suspense, thrill and joy. They wept unabashedly in joy and sorrow. Tense moments were aplenty. South African Percy Montgomery’s four penalty goals, Englishman Wilkinson’s clockwork precision kicks, his team-mate Mark Cueto’s disallowed try after a five-minute television replay session…

South African Els, who came to her first public rugby screening in Doha, perfectly summed up the jubilant feelings at the end of the game.

“Our team had passion and followed it up with consistency. We waited for 12 long years to have the feel of that golden trophy again. We are once again world champions,” she said.

In the end, when the image of British trophy engraver Colin Mabey appeared on screen, grudgingly etching his rivals’ name on the base of the Webb Ellis trophy, the cheering in Doha reached a crescendo. When South African President Thabo Mbeki raised the trophy above his head, atop the shoulders of his nation’s rugby players, there was not a single person at the Doha Rugby Football Centre who stood idle.

South African supporters in Doha screamed their approval while their English counterparts quietly made the rounds, offering congratulations. An evening to remember had just come to a spectacular close and South Africa, were officially crowned the strongest men on planet earth.