SA rugby's 'Champions Tour' kicks off
9 February 2010
South African rugby enjoyed a superb year in 2009, with the country's teams winning many of rugby's most sought-after trophies. In the wake of that success, the SA Rugby Union arranged the Champions Tour. It made its first stop in Cape Town on the weekend.
Thousands of fans of the game witnessed some of the finest silverware on offer when the South African Rugby Union's (SARU) Champions Tour made its first five stops in and around Cape Town over the course of three days.
It started on Friday morning at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), where schoolchildren from primary schools in the area were the first to set foot on SARU's 15-metre trailer filled with every trophy won by South African teams during 2009, along with the Rugby World Cup won in France in 2007.
Trophies
UWC students and staffed also flocked to the truck, taking time out from their studies to see among others, the Webb Ellis Cup, the Vodacom Tri-Nations trophy, the Super 14 trophy and the very popular Absa Currie Cup.
The weekend's activities included Stormers players, with popular new signing, Springbok wing Bryan Habana, joining the Champions Tour at Canal Walk.
"You, the fans, stand central to all the successes we've achieved on the rugby fields of the world during the last few years. Without you, this Tour would not have been possible and it’s great to be able to give back in this way," Habana said.
The Champions Tour also called in at one of the oldest test venues in the world: the Newlands Rugby Stadium. Children and their parents, who had camped on the hallowed turf as part of a sleepover organised by Club Newlands, walked over to see the trophies.
Cape Town Stadium
Saturday was spent at the very impressive new Cape Town Stadium, one of the host stadiums for the Fifa World Cup. Thousands of supporters who attended the friendly match between Boland and the Vodacom Stormers visited the truck, which proved a very popular attraction during a history-making day, with the stadium in Green Point hosting its first rugby match.
On Sunday, the Champion Tour went to two very popular Cape Town shopping spots – first up was Kenilworth Centre, after which it wound its way to Canal Walk, where Habana was among the Stormers' players signing autographs.
The Tour next enters the Boland and Griquas regions, with stops planned in Paarl, Stellenbosch, Robertson, Worcester and Wellington before it heads up the West Coast.
Next stops:
(all dates in February)
SAinfo reporter
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