Sport Matters

Outfoxed... Little Japan took on and conquered South Africa's giants of rugby in the world cup's biggest upset  The pain of losing to Japan in rugby at the weekend was very deep for many South Africans. It cut through their national pride like a merciless knife. Losing is part of the game but SA rugby has no business losing to Japan. That's what so many of us believed when the Asian nation was drawn to give the Springboks their first test in the 2015 Rugby World Cup. True, Japan do not have better rugby players than SA. Their pool of players is small and limited to a few cities where programmes for rugby development exist in the extremely traditional country. I did not watch the match because of a personal protest, though I kept abreast with progress through a radio broadcast. Rugby writers however are of the opinion that South Africa did not have a clear plan, for the match. EWN's Rafiq Ragiet wrote at halftime that "Japan [was] the more impressive team i