A group of South Africans celebrated their triumphant cup final win over England at the Marlow Rugby Club.

More than 300 people attended the town’s Riverwoods Drive venue during breakfast on Saturday, November 2, to watch the conclusion of this year’s Rugby World Cup final with around 50 South Africans in attendance.

The small group of South Africans were spread out amongst the club and were in good spirits, as the Springboks defeated England 32-12 in Yohohama.

 

 

It was the third time South Africa were crowned world champions, following their successes in 1995 and in 2007, when they defeated in England in the latter.

Chris Dix, who is from Cape Town, but has lived in Marlow for 24 years said: “Today (Saturday) has been incredible, it was a well-deserved victory.

“The 2007 final against England was a lot closer than this year’s final and hands down I thought we were going to win the final today (Saturday).

“Given our last couple of games, we played really badly against Wales, however, England had too much of a confidence boost after beating New Zealand, that they didn’t up with their a-game against us.

“The South African defence throughout the whole tournament has been awesome - that’s been their strongest point and our plans for the rest of the day is to celebrate until tomorrow (Sunday).”

The event was organised by Richard Lorenzi, who, with the help of others, managed to get in boerewors sausage and South African pork for the ‘away’ fans, with spectators also enjoying regular bacon rolls and a hog roast.

Those who helped set up for the day started between 3.30am and 4am, with many fans staying into the early hours of the afternoon.

And even though the South Africans were the minority at the club, many of them consoled the devastated English supporters, with some English fans congratulating the South Africans.

The next world cup will take place in 2023 in France.

Andrew Webb, who helped organise the day, said: “Today (Saturday) was a combination of lots of hard work over the last few weeks and probably half the people here today have never even been at the Marlow Rugby Club before.

“We had so many people here that we ran out of beer! But today is what we’re all about.

“To get everyone to come down at this time of the morning and to be eating and drinking with us, can you imagine what it would have been like if we were playing at a normal time in the afternoon?

“There is a strong community of South Africans that live in Marlow so it is nice that they come down to events like these.”