AHEAD of the kick-off of the anticipated IRB World Cup 2023 to be hosted by France, a user-friendly official guide to the rugby tournament has been launched for followers of the age-old sport.
Bustling with a kaleidoscope of eye-catching action imagery complementing explanatory and informative text for even the undiscerning of novices, it is authored by British sports journalist, Simon Collings, and has been made available by the London-addressed Wellbeck Publishing Group and distributed across South Africa through local publishers, Jonathan Ball Publishers.
Offering in-depth analysis of the participating 20 teams and resumes of the respective countries’ star players (including the popular Gqebhera-raised Springboks’ skipper, Siya Kolisi), the 123-pager also contains a section giving a background of the game’s origins (harking to 1823 when a man named William Webb Ellis – after whom the World Cup trophy at stake is named – picked up the ball whilst playing a game of football at Rugby School, and started running) as well as that of the sport’s heritage in relation to two-time hosts, France.
The book contains a layout of the nine modern stadia spread across the European country, which will play host to 48 matches between September 8 when the host team will open the event against perpetual favourites, New Zealand (referred to as the All Blacks, to the initiated), and October 28 when the finale would be contested at the 80, 023 capacity Stade de France (the site of the Springboks’ second World Cup triumph in 2007.)
Interesting titbits, inter alia, regarding the whole tourney include a sustainability innovation whereby the medals for the winners, runners-up and third place team, will be composed of precious metals extracted from electronic products melted down. Crucially, the sporting revelry (with 2.6million tickets available to fans) is projected create some 17, 000 jobs and bolster the host nation’s economy with a bonanza estimated at around $2 billion!
South Africa’s rugby community has much at stake as “Die Manne” (the men – as the Springboks are referred to), three-time winners, are also considered favourites to lift the Webb Ellis trophy once again as they did at the 2019 edition of the tourney in Japan.
Boosting the most racially transformative squad (with 22 of the current 33 selected players already World Cup winners) ever in the more than 100-year-old history of the country’s rugby – the men in gold and green served notice of their ambitions when just a fortnight from the commencement of the 2023 global showpiece, they handed their perennial nemesis, the All Blacks, their worst-ever defeat (35 – 7) in the Qatar Airways Cup at London’s Twickenham Stadium on August 25.
A caption in the guide accompanying an image of Kolisi (the first ever Black captain of the Springboks) hoisting aloft the trophy at the conclusion of the 2019 World Cup, describes the photograph as having become an iconic image that underlines the power of rugby!
South Africans of all hues will be hoping for an encore of the feat their team realized four years ago –come the evening of October 28, 2023 at the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, as was the case back in October 20, 2007 at the same location!
Rugby World Cup France 2023 The Official Guide retails for R390 and is available at leading book retailers nationwide.
