For those who are unaware, the Rugby World cup is drawing to a close with the Grand Final match between New Zealand and Australia kicking off in London at 4pm Saturday. Last weekend saw the semifinal matches between New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, Argentina. Harry Jones, a Springbok (the South Africa rugby team) fan in London for the game, wrote an epic account of his semifinal day in London.
Even if you know nothing about Rugby, this is a worthwhile read. Harry’s writing leaves you feeling as though you were there with him experiencing all the highs and lows of what was no doubt a memorable and somewhat disappointing day for him (New Zealand went on to beat South Africa 20 to 18).
The sky was grey in London in Leicester Square as I left the hotel. It was not far to Trafalgar Square where the two-mile Jog the Memory with the 1995 Springbok squad would begin. But I was early for the 7:30 start, and it was dark and cold, just as I like a run, and the best way to see a giant, busy city is on an early jog.
I went through Chinatown, past St. Anne’s Church which is just next to the House of Ho. I am not sure which of those institutions is winning, currently. The narrow streets were wet with the detritus of Friday night’s debauchery, but festooned above with paprika-hued lanterns and flags, allowing the East to meet the West in this great repository of wealth and capital and ideas and trade.
Running along an ale-slicked cobblestone street, past shops named Bubbleology, The Yard Bar, the Rude Bastard, Smog, Spice Joy, and Lick my Hose, and galleries dedicated to works of art like a glass of water on a table or a simple black dot on a white canvas, I saw a tottering trio of young women on heels too high, with skirts too short, take a heavy spill on the pavement, near the Mall. They shouted at me, in wholly unintelligible dialect, about doing something with them that sounded illegal, and then laughed in that delirium of sleepless binge.
Fantastic stuff, Harry’s personal account highlights many of the things that I love about Rugby and its supporters.