Saturday 6th & Sunday 7thOne of “my” agenda items was to incorporate the CPT rugby sevens, part of the world-wide, 9-destination tournament, into this holiday and by some “quirk” of fate we’ve arrived!!!! Also, another stroke of good fortune is that the stadium is only a 10-minute walk from our hotel, even better so no need to rush this morning.
The tournament takes place in the DHL multi-function Stadium specifically built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup; a magnificent building with a seating capacity in its standard form of 55,000, though for the 2010 football World Cup, it was increased with temporary seating to over 64,000. I have to say it was probably the best stadium I’ve visited; all the seats are fixed and there was lots of legroom to allow people to walk through.
This 7’s tournament is for both men and women’s teams, played over the two days with the first day all about the pool matches. Of course pool matches have anomalies were a number of one sided games take place, but that didn’t matter as they were exciting to watch in their own ways. Outside the actual stadium building, but still inside the complex there were other activities including a stunt bike rider jumping on and off structures up to about 20-meters high and quite impressive, his run up was very short!!! Naturally there were drink and food trucks of every description everywhere and merchandise outlets around the perimeter. Alcohol was controlled, only two plastic glasses of beer per person, no other alcoholic drinks for sale, unless you were in a VIP suite!!!
All day we had been enjoying the games in the sun, fortunately Christine had the foresight to bring sun cream but towards the late afternoon the wind arrived, and by-heck, it was a cold wind🥶🥶
The first day ended after the last pool game had finished about 7.30pm and then there was a mass exodus as 55,000 left the stadium in one go, but I have to say it was very orderly and on the outside the local police had everything well under control. Unfortunately for us, this control included herding us (nicely) along a fenced-in route that by-passed the road down to our hotel, we ended up down by the waterfront👹👹👹. By now being dark, and the wind still blowing it was cold so we made straight for our hotel but instead of the 10-minutes we planned, the return was over half an hour and no, I hadn’t learned my lesson, no extra jumper!!!!! During the day we enjoyed some Indonesian food, made a change from burgers and hot dogs etc., so not too hungry and therefore didn’t venture out again that evening.
The second day at the sevens promised to be closer, it was knockout day and the rugby seemed more spectacular and faster with many exciting chases after making line breaks. Yesterday “seemed” to be more about defence but today it was all about attack, so some spectacular tries were scored. I’m sure the last time I did a HSBC tour, England played as did Scotland and Wales but no, now it is a combined GB team and I am sad to say they performed miserably, both the men and the women👹👹👹. Today we also met up with Margaret, unfortunately she had her ticket in another section of the stadium however much of the time we all sat together. The only time every seat was actually taken was when South Africa was playing and when they were playing, the noise levels went right up, and when they scored, the excitement made the stand vibrate as they all jumped up-n-down for joy!!!
At lunchtime the three of us enjoyed another Indonesian meal from the “truck”, it was tasty but more importantly it was cooked to order, good but the downside is, you had to wait whilst it was cooked so there were basically two queues, but well worth it.
By the early afternoon the games were really getting exciting with the semi finals in full swing; end to end stuff. We then had the women’s final, this was between New Zealand and Australia and promised to be a thrilling match, a “hot contest” between these two rivals but unfortunately it finished as a “damp squid”; the final score New Zealand 12 : 26 Australia; a reversal of the last final in Dubai where New Zealand took the honours.
By now the stadium was “heaving” as South Africa took on Argentina in the men’s final. The South African national anthem, sung by a “choir” of the best part of c.50,000 people must have been heard clearly at the top of table mountain, the atmosphere was tense and full of expectation of a one sided whitewash as last time out in Dubai Argentina finished 5th/6th. So stage set, crowd expectant, whistle went and within a minute 7 points on the board, the crowd went wild. Re set, whistle went and within a minute another 7- points but this time to Argentina, the crowd went silent and this is how the whole match went, neither side taking control and as the game headed into the final minute, with Argentina ahead by 5-points, the crowd were screaming and suddenly SA broke through and scored into the corner, a tied score and a very difficult kick to claim the extra 2–points successfully executed. About 20-seconds left, all SA had to do was start with a safe drop kick, win the ball back, and by then the hooter would have gone so kick it out of play, job done, but no, they screwed up the kicking the ball straight into touch out on the full which gave Argentina the one final chance to get a score as they had a penalty on the half way line. A tap and go kick, pass the ball, and wait for a space to appear to break through, just as they had done all game. The crowd were pulling their “metaphorical” hair out at the stupid kick-off mistake, but the Argentinian’s must have panicked and made a miss-pass that caused a knock on; game over, South Africa 21 : 19 Argentina, one big sigh of relief from the crowd!!!!! What an exciting final, well worth waiting for. We stayed to watch the presentation but being the wrong end of the stadium, couldn’t see much so finally decided to head off to meet up with Margaret again who was beaming from ear-to-ear; a “Bock” naturally!! The whole tournament produced just under 200-tries, everyone hard fought for, a very exciting 2-days at a rugby festival. Note to self, go to another venue; having done Hong Kong, Dubai and now Cape Town, maybe a European one next time🤔🤔.
As agreed after all the excitement we met outside the disabled “loos”, an easy place to get to. As per last night we were all herded (nicely) along the corridor created by mobile fencing towards the waterfront, but to-night there was no wind but I did bring a warm woolly cardigan!!! Halfway along, at the next junction we peeled off, Margaret was taking us to a club by the water off the “hard”, somewhere one wouldn’t find in a month of Sundays unless you were in the know. According to Margaret one can buy drinks etc., but not use their facilities unless you’re a member; facilities hmmmm, yes there was a pool, very small and a bar-b-q and as far as we could see, nothing else!!!! But the good news, apparently it’s the cheapest place in town to get alcohol.
After enjoying some more excellent South African wine, we headed to the Grand Africa Collection, the opposite end of the spectrum where it was the place to be seen etc., etc. it was now getting dark and cold (glad we brought jumpers) so sat in and enjoyed an “interesting” mix of Pizzas and of course more local wine. Eventually we booked and shared another “Uber” and left.
Two great days of rugby sevens, well I thought so🤭🤭; now back to sightseeing. Tomorrow.