When it comes to watching the Boks at the Rugby World Cup, ’boer maak a plan (a farmer makes a plan). Even if that boer (farmer) is in Vietnam.
In Hanoi, Emile van Heerden and his wife Jane manage Mischief & Mayhem Burgers, a popular Rugby World Cup (RWC) hangout for South Africans.
“The broadcast times are awful,” Emile told the Sunday Times. “Due to time differences, the matches are sometimes only shown at 2am. So we encourage our rugby regulars to boycott their phones, news and the internet on those evenings and to then join us at the bar in the morning so we can watch the match together.
“It is great fun to braai in the morning and watch the game with Bloody Marys and boerie rolls.”
The Van Heerdens brought a little bit of South Africa with them when they moved from Cape Town to Vietnam seven years ago.
“Just more than 11,000km away from Cape Town you will find our bar and with it you will find brandy, biltong, melktertjies (milk tarts), Mandoza, Fokofpolisiekar and Shosholoza,” Emile laughed.
Matchdays are not only for South Africans.
“Kel Quinne, one of our Kiwi customers, and Adriaan Booyens, one of the South Africans, have a bet riding on the outcome. If the Springboks win the cup, the Kiwi has to tattoo a flying springbok on his backside. If the All Blacks win, the Saffa must do the same with a silver fern.”
Over in London, the legendary rugby pub, The Cabbage Patch, has been attracting many South Africans.
“We like to think we are the most famous rugby pub in the world. I’ve been the owner for 26 years and thousands of South Africans have passed through my doors in that time,” owner Stuart Green told the Sunday Times.
He loves his South African customers. “In the World Cup, when it comes to trade, your lot and the Irish are my next best teams after my fellow English.”
He was expecting up to 700 people to crowd the pub last night to watch the semifinal between South Africa and England.
“That is our usual number at games. Within 10 minutes from the final whistle in the Boks victory over France we were fully sold out for the semifinal.”
His preparations for the match last night included laying in plenty of biltong and brandy — he expected to go through up to 30 bottles.
In Limerick, Ireland, Springbok scrumhalf Cobus Reinach’s uncle Herman runs Jabulani Events, a networking service focused on expat South Africans.
“Jabulani means happiness and it describes perfectly the joy rugby brings,” said Reinach, who emigrated to Ireland early last year.
“I brought with me my Bok bus, a minibus I converted to look like a miniature of the bus the Boks travel around in.”
His company organises rugby-focused events at Kilmurry Lodge, a hotel near Limerick.
If the Springboks win the cup, the Kiwi has to tattoo a flying springbok on his backside. If the All Blacks win, the Saffa must do the same with a silver fern
— Emile van Heerden
“When people see the bus parked outside the Kilmurry Lodge, they know the Boks are playing,” Reinach laughed. “We started hosting matchdays during the warm-up matches and the early [group] rounds. Our best attendance was the South Africa vs Ireland match. We had about 100 South Africans and 60 Irish.”
He said boerie rolls, chicken strips, “and of course brandy” were matchday staples.
“Now that [Ireland] have fallen out of the competition, more and more Irish are starting to support the Springboks.”
In Atlanta, Georgia, which hosts a large South African community, between 100 and 150 people gather at Café I Am to watch RWC matches.
One of the organisers, Nico du Plessis, said he had been passionate about rugby all his life. “The dream is still to create something more international than just a South African get-together and it is starting to work.”
On matchdays, a lot of boerewors goes on the braai.
“We have made potjiekos and sheep on the spit,” Du Plessis said. “Our friends from other nations are loving it.”
Du Plessis was expecting members of all the Atlanta business chambers from countries in the RWC to be at the restaurant to watch last night’s match.
And next weekend, the mayor of Atlanta Andre Dickens and state senator Shawn Still are expected to be there for the final.
There are not many rugby fans in Medellin, Colombia, but those who do live there head to the Barrio Sur Café for RWC matches.
Co-owner Craig Watson, a Brit, said: “In 2019 the final was broadcast at 4am. We opened especially for that and quite a few fans of both teams were here. It was great fun, even though it ended in heartache for me as an Englishman.”
South Africa won that match to claim the Webb Ellis Trophy.
“We are a little off the beaten path for rugby fans, but we had South Africans and some of the other nations at the matches,” Watson said. “A South African woman who lives here makes biltong, so we already have some in stock for the rest of the South African matches.”
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