Cup mania conquers diehard South African rugby fans

SOWETO, South Africa (Reuters) - Avid rugby supporter Mark van Geen had never watched a live football match until the World Cup arrived on his doorstep last month.

Before the opener between hosts Bafana Bafana and Mexico, the white South African had also never set foot in Soweto, the country's biggest township on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

"If you had told me a month ago that I would one day watch soccer in Soweto, I would have thought you mad," the 25-year-old told Reuters, sipping on a beer while sitting on a plastic crate around a fire in a shebeen, one of Soweto's drinking dens.

Since the kickoff on June 11, the Springbok fan has been back to Soweto, home to a million poor black South Africans and a legacy of the country's divided past, to watch matches at the Soccer City stadium or at the nearby fan park.

"The atmosphere here is great, and you become a soccer fanatic no matter what sports you normally follow," he said.

South Africans are sports-mad although soccer, despite Bafana Bafana's failure to shine, is more popular among blacks while most avid rugby and cricket fans are white.

The country's Springboks rugby side are the world champions and have won the tropy twice in the last four tournaments, while the Proteas cricket team are ranked second in the world although they have never won the World Cup.

"Most black South Africans play soccer and most whites play rugby, that's the way we've been brought up. But we do love all sports and the World Cup has been wonderful to follow for all of us," said Jan Oberholzer, former Blue Bulls rugby captain.

RACIAL DIVIDE

Many say the racial divide between rugby and soccer has been changing. In a recent Super 14 rugby final, diehard Afrikaner fans were welcomed in their masses to Soweto, and other major rugby games are planned for the township in the future.

South Africans believe sports have the power to unite a nation still divided 16 years after the end of apartheid.

"Sport is one thing the government should concentrate on," said Gary Gibson, a 38-year-old optometrist and sports fanatic.

Many have compared the soccer tournament to the 1995 Rugby World Cup, South Africa's first major post-apartheid event, when blacks, previously known to support visiting teams against an all-white Springbok side, tentatively began to get on board.

All remember how the then South Africa President Nelson Mandela put on a Springbok shirt to present the trophy to the victorious home captain in a masterful political gesture.

The call was for the Rainbow Nation to get together behind all their sports teams and, despite some disagreements over a positive discrimination policy designed to deliver more multicultural national teams, there has been progress.

"We should stop talking about black or white but just get the best possible people on the teams," said Gibson.

"If we excel in sports, that will be our best advertisement to the world, people will see what a wonderful place we are."

He said government needed to invest in creating better teams and reverse a legacy of mediocre quality of local club matches to sustain people's enthusiasm, both from blacks and young Afrikaans-speakers whipped up by World Cup fever.

For now, people prefer televised international games to waching the local leagues.

FEEL AFRICAN

Bafana Bafana, ranked 83rd in the world, are the first World Cup hosts that failed to reach the second round but that did little to dampen the spirit of South Africans who cheered for Ghana, the only African team to get through to the last eight.

"I felt all African hearts in the stadium stopped beating for a second when Ghana missed that crucial penalty," said Marie Jansen, a shop assistant, referring to Asamoah Gyan's failed attempt that would have handed his side a semi-final spot.

People have said following the team's World Cup campaign together has left them feeling more unified as a nation, and some young white South Africans also describe feeling more linked to the African continent through the tournament.

"Unlike my parents, who've lived through apartheid, I don't have any of that historical baggage," said 17-year-old Hilton White, armed with two vuvuzelas -- the plastic trumpets loved by South Africans -- before a semi-final match.

"The World Cup was an eye-opener in some way. It made me feel really proud of being an African and a South African."

Beneath the euphoria over the country's success in hosting Africa's first World Cup, realists say deep racial tensions, stark wealth disparities and structural social and economic problems cannot be dissolved by a month's soccer spectacular.

"It's too naive to believe that the World Cup has changed everything or that you have this sudden unity among South Africans that wasn't there four weeks ago," said Lizette Stein.

"But at least you can say people are more willing to talk and step beyond their comfort zone, and that's huge."

(Editing by Ken Ferris)