Rudge, security and breaches

I promised that this blog would now take a peek at the other side of our strange new world. I had almost succeeded in pushing the thought of streakers to the darkest cobwebbed parts of my mind when it happened.

I was watching a review of the game between England and South African (famously known as Springboks) when it happened. At one point in the game, some guy in a green luminous jacket appeared in the scrum.

I was confused. Do rudge officials wear luminous green? Then I realised it was an overzealous fan who could not hold his anxiety any more. He probably wanted to get the ball and make a try himself since his team was not as serious about it.

But the moment of English glory came in the form of a fan who saw a gap in the security ranks and made for the Webb Ellis trophy. Before the mean guys could get him, he had lifted the cup to hundreds of camera clicks. His stunt left the French security smarting, especially since SA President Thabo Mbeki, his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were not far away.

I do not know what motivates streakers and other security breachers, if there is such a word, but they provide a useful break to a charged game like rugby.

I can't find the picture in Reuters (journalists play down such things in the notion that highlighting them only nudges them on to try again), but I like the caption dedicated to the English fan in a newspaper in my country.

"IMPATIENT: A (sic) England fan who breeched (sic) security reaches for the Webb Ellis trophy before being whisked away. It's the closest England came to lifting the World Cup."