Hope Re-ignited after Springboks victory!

Hello Team

Well it's less than 17 days to the start of the World Cup, and less than 15 days until we actually leave! You can imagine that we have all become that much keener for the trip after a terrific display by the Springboks this past weekend, where we punished the All Blacks.  A few things have happened over the last few days that will influence the trip, so I thought a blog entry was necessary!

Bloody oath - piece of crap!

Firstly, this past weekend saw Sassy, Danger and Streaks (myself), take an awesome road trip up to the Drakensberg for a cricket weekend with the Crusaders cricket boys.  I imagined this would be an ideal time to get some footage and feedback from my partners in crime for our upcoming trip, as well as document the rugby match against the All Blacks on Saturday.  Unfortunately, my camera didn't make it past the drive up, with the lens cap getting jammed across the lens in the 1st hour!  And that was just from taking it out my pocket!  Therefore no footage was taken, and I now have to document this in words!

Well as any boys weekend would be, a lot of drinking, a lot of banter, and a lot of disappearing into the night occurred.  Unfortunately for me, the disappearring occured a lot on my part.  Yes I know I have a bet with Danger, where he is required to outlast Mrs. Sassy every night during the World Cup, but genetically speaking he thinks the game is in the bag.  I did not so much "drop, duck and roll" from the night's proceedings, but more passing out in the boot of the bakkie while driving to the pub, only to rejoin the boys refreshed! Danger thought I would leave this out, but true to my word, I will blog this objectively, so this is how my Friday night ended up...

Rightfully quoted by Danger as : "Streaks meets toilet" 

Don't stress Streaks supporters!  This is all temporary, and is actual training in disguise, where I will be pushing my stamina to the limits to have the ultimate time in New Zealand.  Unfortunately once again, I wasn't the only one having a banger of a time! Mrs. Sassy was reported to have been causing a ruckus at the Hops on Saturday night - with some ear-ring wearing, backward cap, gangster looking fellows.  Please God she doesn't pull this stunt against some 7-foot Maori!

Brussouw...amazing...

The highest point of the weekend had to be the Springbok victory on Saturday.  Twenty of us joined the locals at the pub after a round of golf,  and it was an awesome experience to see the boys issue a proper klap to the Kiwis.  Granted they were playing a 2nd string side, but the team needed a boost in confidence from their last test match before they head to New Zealand.  Heinrich Brussouw was unreal in the game, and rightfully earned the Man of the match award.  You can tell just by the look on his face he had a screamer! What a warrior!

Pieter De Villiers announces the Springbok squad that will go across to New Zealand this evening, so all eyes will be glued to the news channel. After this past weekend, the team that ran out against the All Blacks, bar a few loose forwards, will more than likely be the starting line-up against Wales come the 11th of September.

As I'm writing this I just got distressing emails from Sassy and Danger, because they have lost the confirmation of the tickets for the Wales game.  I was the one who booked it, and I am the one collecting the tickets on my credit card - but they still thought that I didn't book them! Well amongst the distress, and after settling their anxiety issues, the real reason for the request for the ticket confirmation was to see where our seats for the game were.  We went to the Westpac Stadium website, and managed to get an image:

Halfway-line baby! Come on!

The George..always a crazy jol!

A pretty cool piece of news that also came up in the past week, was we were getting sponsored Springbok hoodies by The George pub in Umhlanga!  Pretty awesome hey - but there is one condition!  We have to get on TV, and show the world we are sponsored by them!  We therefore have decided to design a banner, where we will include The George branding.  Now we need help from our followers - we need to have something on the sign that will get us onto TV!  We have also just found out that there are 5,000 other South African's going across for the games, so the sign really needs to be awesome to get us on TV!  Please comment some suggestions below, and see if you can get your sign to join us in New Zealand!

Otherwise that's all for now!  It's exactly 16 days, 19 hours, and 23 minutes to the start of the World Cup, and 14 and a half days until we leave!  Yeaahhhhh Buddy!

If you are on Twitter, follow me on @DevinH21!

Cheers
Streaks*

Tri-Nations and 1st Video Blog!

Hello Team!

Yesterday it was exactly 3 weeks to the start of our Rugby World Cup journey, making today the last day before we enter the teens to departure! Over the last week we've made a few in-roads with the sorting out of our hire-car, as well as getting a preview feature of how well our full strength Springbok side would perform come the RWC.

Seeing that Danger organised the travel agent (thanks Kelly!) to book our flights, I organised the match tickets (halfway line unless I stand to be corrected), and Mrs. Sassy is in charge of keeping 3 crazy men in line, this left Sassy with the job of organising the hire car. After weighing up the options of either Greyhounding it, training it, or even flying it - we decided that the best and cheapest way to get from Auckland to Wellington would be to hire a car.  We looked at the big company's like Avis, and Budget Rental, but we couldn't find anything in our price range that would fit us and our bags in.  Somehow Sassy found us our baby, and we are renting this:

The "Cheap and Cheerful" - 1600cc Transporting Machine!

Yeah baby, this station wagon has been donned the "Cheap and Cheerful", and has now become a fully fledged member of the Wolfpack.  Not entirely certain if she will look like this, but the more cheerful the better!  Streaks has already been told that he can't bring all his hair equipment, as space is limited.  The only thing Danger is going to be packing is going to be a moerse-groot hangover from the plane trip.

Just to inform you, there is currently a bet going on between Danger and Streaks.  As they do every few months or so, they get drunk, get into an argument of who's better at whatever, and they make a bet.  The last bet occurred at the cricket, where Streaks claimed he was a better bowler than Danger and would take more wickets than him in the action cricket season.  Danger was up for the challenge, and said that if he won, Streaks would have to shave off his glorious locks.  However, if Streaks won, Danger would have to die his hair blonde.  I wonder how that worked out...

And the winner of the bet is Streaksy! Unlucky Danger!

The bet going this time round, is concering Danger's stamina (and not the one you're hoping for ladies). Danger is famous for his ability to 'Drop, Duck and Roll' during a big drinking session, and get lost to the night.  However, he has claimed that in New Zealand, he will be unplayable, and he is going to teach Streaks a lesson! However, Streaks is so confident that Danger will DDR in NZ, that he reckons Mrs. Sassy will outlast Danger in one of the 10 nights we are there!  If Mrs. Sassy outlasts Danger, then he has to buy Streaks drinks for one whole drinking night! And the bet is likewise if Mrs. Sassy fails to outlast him!  Streaks is pretty confident seeing that Danger was nowhere to be seen after the rugby on Saturday night!

As any Springbok supporter will know, South Africa played Australia this past weekend in our hometown, Durban, and we went to the game to see what the Springboks could do with a full strength side.  Although I didn't go the rugby with the Wolfpack, I did bump into them at the game!  Instead of writing out how the game went, I video taped our journey to the game, and have provided you our 1st video blog!  Expect more of these as it comes closer to the World Cup - but in the meantime don't let me tell you how the night went - watch it here!

Here is the link if you can't see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeKteqA17is

Hope you enjoy the video, and please share it with your friends, and join us on our journey to the Rugby World Cup.  Please leave some comments below, and remember that Danger bashing is encouraged, and Streaks supporting is supported!

It is exactly 20 days until we leave! NZ here we come...YEAH BABY!

Let the Documenting Begin!

Hello RWC Team

My name is Devin "Streaks" Heffer and this is my blog on our road to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.   We are travelling halfway across the world to support the defending champions, the Springboks, in their pursuit of a record 3rd Rugby World Cup. We leave for our journey from South Africa on the 7th of September, the 1st RWC 2011 game kicks off on the 9th, and our first match is that against Wales on the 11th (September 11th treat us well!).  The match tickets are booked, the airfares are paid, and the rental car (an old station wagon with GPS...yes please!) has been booked for our epic journey.

The World Cup winning Springboks from France 2007

 The best part of this trip is that I'm not going at it alone. It will be the awesome foursome from Durban, South Africa, of Jared aka "Sassy", his new wife and my sister Shelley "aka Mrs. Sassy", and the oldest but craziest member of our group "Danger" Dave!  Sassy and Mrs. Sassy are newly weds, and this trip makes up part of their honeymoon.  Unfortunately Danger and myself have invited ourselves over for the ride!  Expect much debate, much debacle, and much debauchery from this bunch.  Danger already knows he doesn't stand a chance against Streaksy (the bets between us are something quite remarkable, and will be noted here!).

Sassy and Mrs. Sassy - the newly weds!

Streaks and Danger - Wellington watch out!

This trip has been said it is not for the faint hearted, and a 37 hour trip from Durban to Wellington lies ahead of us. 37 hours!? Yip that's right.  Unfortunately we were a bit slow on the booking of flights, and instead of going via Perth to Auckland, we are now going Durban -> Dubai -> Brisbane -> Auckland and then a 9 and half hour drive from Auckland to Wellington!  Yet it's all part of the adventure, and gives us more time to document all the happenings and events of this epic trip.  I've already been warned that flying with Danger is like flying with a real life drunken circus.  28 hours of flying means that Danger could endure 3 hangovers before we've even landed in Auckland.  I wonder if they sell booze in Dubai!?

Anyways, if you are going to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, or if you are going to be supporting your favorite team from home, then follow this blog to keep up to date with all the preparation, the anticipation, and the enjoyment of this year's rugby spectacular.

This is our road to RWC 2011!

P.S. From the time of this post, there are 24 days to the start of RWC 2011!