Out With The Old, In With the New
Greenpoint Stadium hosted its first rugby match.
For the first time in history, a big rugby game in the city was not played at Newlands. The mountain did not move, nor did the sea swallow up Cape Town.
The World Cup soccer venue hosted its first rugby match on Saturday when a Boland XV played the Stormers in a Super 14 warm-up and the spectacle was breathtaking.
WP’s current home at Newlands in the city’s southern suburbs suddenly looks like a geriatric relative.
The change is inevitable, and not all bad. Newlands comes with its baggage of segregation whereas the new stadium’s crowd reflected a diversity on Saturday that was refreshingly spontaneous.
Still, there will be howls of protest and weeping nostalgia when the move is made.
It has been a favourite ground and the change will be wrenching.
In those days, you would watch a wonderful array of rugby talent, with five club games on the programme.
The press box nestled in the lower grandstand, cheek by jowl with the prime season ticket-holders. Over years, we got to know them, watched them grow old and indulged their crackpot opinions.
So the people at Western Province rugby shove their pride and tradition, sell off the Grand Old Lady and shift to the other side of the mountain.
Even though the old team will turn in their graves.
Courtesy of Archie Henderson
HAVE YOUR SAY: What stands out the most for you about the Newlands Rugby Stadium? What will you miss about the it?
First Match at the Cape Town Stadium
Santos and Ajax take the field at the Cape Town stadium.
The Soccer World Cup stadium in Cape Town hosted its first football match on Saturday, with organisers saying everything appeared to work fine without any major glitches.
An estimated 20 000 fans used a park-and-ride system to take buses from the city centre to the new 68 000 seater arena to watch Ajax Cape Town take on Santos, the city’s top two teams.
Fans arrive to watch soccer at the stadium in Cape Town.
The stadium will host several matches, including a semifinal, when the first World Cup to be played on the African continent begins in June.
“This event is important so we can pick up any flaws now,” said Carlo Scott, who will help coordinate up to 1 700 volunteers during the World Cup games.
“I’ve played at many big venues around the country, and I know the players will enjoy the atmosphere and facilities here,” said Scott, who was a striker for both Ajax and Santos during his playing career.
Teams line up before the start of the soccer match.
The game eventually ended goalless at the end of regulation time, with Santos winning 6-5 in a penalty shoot-out.
Don Hayes, of Noordhoek, came with his wife and two young sons.
“The stadium is just awesome. We can really be proud of it,” Hayes said.
Santos fans at the stadium in Cape Town.
Courtesy of The Mail and Guardian
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