Two very popular sports in South Africa that are rare to see in the United States are cricket and rugby. A few weeks ago we attended our first cricket match — day three of a five-day contest — and it was a memorable experience with plenty of breaks for food and rest. This past weekend we decided to try our first live rugby match.
Rugby borrows elements from American football and soccer, both games I enjoy, but the flow of rugby still felt unfamiliar. Players cluster together fighting for possession, then kick the ball downfield. At first I wasn’t sure I’d warm up to it, but I felt the same about baseball initially, and watching more games helped. Usually attending in person helps me grasp the rules, but we ended up missing a large portion of this match. Here’s why.
We bought tickets online the day before, expecting a full house because it was Cape Town versus Johannesburg. Our only ticket collection option was will call, which we’ve used many times before without issue. We spent the afternoon visiting beaches — we even saw wild baboons and penguins in a single day — and returned home about an hour before the match. Seeing heavy foot traffic and limited parking around the stadium, we chose to walk the fifteen minutes to the venue and arrived roughly twenty minutes before kickoff.
Searching for a will call sign turned up nothing. Instead we found ourselves in a massive queue that wrapped around a corner of the stadium. I checked with multiple staff members to confirm we were in the correct line; despite the lack of signage, this was indeed the ticket pickup queue. We assumed perhaps the stadium opened a few minutes later, but at 5:05 p.m., while we were still well into the line, the game announcers began introducing the players.
When we reached the base of a staircase we were admitted into a small area leading to an office where a single staff member was printing tickets one by one from a single computer. They had only started processing the online orders about thirty minutes before kickoff. One person handling what appeared to be well over a thousand ticket pick-ups created long delays. The scene suggested the organizers had not anticipated such a turnout, and the result was frustration all around.
People in line were understandably upset. As we waited, a manager in the office received strong complaints from patrons who had missed much of the match because there was no option to print tickets at home or use a faster collection method. Having worked as a manager in a busy restaurant, I felt sympathy for the staff member on the receiving end of the anger. That helped calm me, and we finally reached our seats just before half time. It was easier to accept because we weren’t invested in one particular team — I can only imagine how tense it would have been if it had been a favorite Ducks game.
Once seated, the atmosphere was electric — very much like a football game, which I sorely miss attending in the fall. The crowd’s passion and energy drew me in and made the experience enjoyable despite missing the first half. I couldn’t follow every play, but Cape Town’s Stormers led by about 15 points for much of the game, which made it easy to cheer along.
All photos in this post were taken by my fiancé. Thanks, fiancé!