“Sympathies to the Wallabies,” tweets the comedian Brendan Jack. “After the tournament, they still have to go back to Australia.”
It’s a sardonic comment on a morning which for many across South Africa has been an emotional rollercoaster. I’m very aware of this because I’ve watched my fellow citizens veer crazily from hope to despair and back again in real time and it was fascinating.
My experience of Sunday morning’s match, which no doubt will go down in history forever attached to the descriptor “heartbreaking”, was somewhat different from the typical Springbok shirt-wearing South African. For one thing, I missed most of the match, opting to go on the Zoo Trot instead. On the drive to the zoo, I listened to my straight best friend Sean Shannon commentate on Radio 2000, but once I started the walk past gibbons and red forest hogs, Twitter was my only source of information. This meant that I experienced the match through the reactions of others, a kind of meta-viewing of proceedings.
Watching a match purely through the reactions of other people is fascinating. You immediately become aware of the emotional tenor of an event, far more so than when you’re also watching it — perhaps because there’s some distance involved.
This is the match in tweets:
“Is Bryce Lawrence blind? Hands in twice. Should’ve been a penalty.”
“Ingxaki asiyisusi lantakumba” #XhosaCommentary
“Even the ball is bouncing in our favour. The ancestors are with us.
“Keep it up, Boks. South Africa deserves this win (and we won’t be able to take the depression otherwise …)” (That was the US Embassy in Pretoria.)
“The Boks look hungry! I like this second half team.”
“There is a god. #Lambie”
“I hate talking about the ref in rugby, but what a fucken idiot is Bryce Lawrence”
“Changing back to the F1. Rugby is bad for my nerves.”
“I can no longer cope”
“No nails left. Trying to write tweets using my bloody stumps is no fun at all #Bokke”
“This ref DOES NOT want me to come over there!!!! #GoBokke”
“Bugger.”
Afterwards, there is time for reflection:
“Can we please not now start ‘building’ for the next WC and just try to be the best team in the world ALL the time? Pick the best players,” tweets Business Day editor Peter Bruce.
“I’m now one of those Capetonians supporting the All Blacks for the rest of the RWC,” declares Jannie Momberg, editor of news24.
One thing I love about Twitter — and why I follow lots of people without filtering them — usually don’t filter it, is that there’s a certain democracy in the timeline. Celebrities, comedians, editors, journalists, students, writers, geeks, nobodies — everybody gets to express their opinion and every tweet is equal.
What comes through very strongly when you watch matches in this way is how effective sport is at creating national cohesion. Support for the Boks came from across the spectrum. Some of the most vocal support came from young black women: think back to where we’ve come from, and don’t underestimate the power of that.
Something that has always struck me about Twitter is the way in which it amplifies a shared experience. As I wrote back in September 2010, Twitter could be the saviour of broadcast TV. “For the experience to be truly meaningful, it must be shared,” I wrote, “and to be shared, you need to let know that others also know what you are witnessing along with them. Twitter has become part of that shared experience, and reminded us that it still matters. So maybe it’s not that the old way to watch TV was better because it brought us together; the new way does too – just in different ways.” This, essentially, is the idea behind the concept of social TV and we saw it in action again during the rugby. (I’ve often wondered why advertisers don’t exploit this. As more and more people use PVR and stop watching ads, wouldn’t it make sense to incentivise them to watch by using Twitter?)
On a day of national mourning, when coffee shops and pubs are filled with sad people in Springbok-branded shirts, I’ll leave the last word to writer Aneshree Naidoo: “Ah. We lost then. Who needs DSTV when you have Twitter.” Indeed.
Should I feel bad for not having watched a single game of rugby this world cup? In fact for not giving a damn at all ^_^ I don’t understand how people can let a game upset them so much. Newsflash – your country’s ability to get an obscurely-shaped ball from one side of a field to the other says very little about it.
Sarah–now that we all know yet one more thing that you cannot do without Twitter (your weekly Zoo Trot), the question on all of our minds is what do you NOT do while twittering?
Sarah, sorry, but this is drivel. The “national cohesion” you write about is simply you misunderstanding the difference between racial- and class divides. Most young black women who Tweet about rugby are middle-upper class urbanites, and therefore almost identical to the young white men who Tweet about it. What you see as national cohesion is simply the midde-upper class becoming more multi-racial. The vast and growing majority of the poor couldn’t give a flying fuck about the Springboks. I’m afraid you’re living in La-La-Land.
sarah — how about _not_ writing about your spoiled life and irrelevant love affair with twitter, and instead doing/offering something more constructive? undoubtedly, each “article” you publish here has to do with your ridiculous infatuation with a social network (or, otherwise, mindless yuppie/hipster complaints about living in sandton). the thoughts that are put forth in this blog are increasingly characterised by self-involved and utterly privileged blabberings. how about this, how about you switch your BlackBerry off for three months, you disable your twitter account, you trade your gas guzzling, earth destructing land rover in for something more eco friendly, you swop houses with someone in soweto, you investigate a burning socio-economic issue, and you offer insightful, responsible, and socially conscious journalism. how about that? the time has come for you to leave that comfortable ivory tower of yours.
PM: I find I can tweet while doing a lot. But yes, it does mean a certain bifurcation of the self, because you’re always there-but-not-there.
My Tweet: “Cheaters never prosper”.
No South African should support either the All Blacks or the Wallabies for the rest of this tournament!
I have been watching, appreciating and supporting the game of rugby for 65 years and am always the first to praise and appreciate good play even if the player is not a Springbok. That of course is beyond the understanding of twitters (or “twits” preferably ), who have’nt a clue about the game, nor the understanding that there are ardent supporters like myself who realize that any given team cannot always win, that losses are a normal and hopefully acceptable part of the exercise, watching a rugby match will always surpass a talking head on the box, that the game has been spoiled to some extent by referees who wish to establish themselves as superior to the combatants and in the process, mismanage the proceedings and that the most knowledgeable are the twits who never ever actually watched a game at all but consider themselves adequately qualified to judge both the players and the supporters by their own suitably unqualified standards.They should limit their comments to those things that they are at least qualified to comment ( twitter )on and which are of the greatest concern to them, perhaps the colour of Brad’s underwear or something like that and refrain from commenting on matters that they know nothing about.
“Support for the Boks came from across the spectrum. Some of the most vocal support came from young black women: think back to where we’ve come from, and don’t underestimate the power of that”.
Sarah, I’m afraid that this is observation only has relevance to the South African obsession with sport. The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation’s SA Reconciliation Barometer 2010 (www.ijr.org.za/publications/SARB2010.php) reports that “about one-fifth (21%) of South Africans indicate that they socialise with people of other race groups ‘often’ or ‘always’”. ‘Socialise’ is defined as visiting with people in your home or their home. South Africans of different races still, I am afraid, largely live separate lives to each other.
We really need to let the idea of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ die a decent death and be buried. It was useful for a time and that time has gone along time again. Real reconciliation in this country will take hard work, honesty, tough talking and a determined commitment to build relationships.
@STephen Browne. Exactly right. Although personally I do enjoy watching a good game of rugby, and one has to support a team. But you are right. It was not our year. Time to move on and maybe address some more pressing issues.
The Springboks were very impressive. They played total rugby its a pity the ref was just not on our side. Even the coach for Australia admitted that the Boks should have won the match. Admittedly it is middle class people who tweet about rugby but the winning streak of the Boks gives hope to millions who are poor and it uplifts their spirits. These things are spiritual we seem to have lost favour right now, and what the reason is for this? Only God knows.
Crucial decisions went against the Boks. When it comes to the crunch Aussies & Kiwis stick together. We need non-commonwealth refs for the important matches.
One day, we will all hopefully read a tweet from a bukkie suporter claiming, ‘We were beaten fair and square by a better side.’ I’m sure I’ll read this shortly after snapping a pic of a unicorn jumping over a blue moon.
sarah:
so, a sort of self-detachment? Interesting. I had not thought of Twitter as possibly enabling a different (neutral?) point of view. Do you consciously think of having an audience, and writing for them, or is it more for yourself? What I mean is, when you make comments (tweet), do you do so because you think others (your audience, for lack of a better word) will be interested, or do you comment about what is of interest to you?
So i just read your Y&R piece, and you clearly address what i was getting at above–the extent to which the audience and the self interact. life as performance art. You should read Erving Goffman on this topic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erving_Goffman)
The Boks won the game on the statistics of possession and territory but lost the game on the score board!
I would like to know what affect the continuous bad decisions, or no decisions by the referee has on a team? The Boks saw red card transgressions taking place, again and again, pointed them out but nothing was done.
How on earth can we have a New Zealand Ref officiating over a game where the Boks are the All Blacks most probably final opponents, and even if not then the same applies to Australia? Did Lawrence rig the game or is he just plain incompetent and this should never have been allowed to happen.
Yes we are all sad and more so because the result was not fair and the man of the match, Pocock, should have been kicked out of the tournament, never mind red carded. Is a nation, in this case Australia truly proud of how they won this game? Cheating is not the way to win a game. Shame on you ref and shame on you, Wallabies and shame on you Lawrence.
Not one person in his right mind would so bluntly fault in the full view of millions of viewers. The prize must be in the millions. Bryce. Just a small loan please. 1M will do ?