I really like this both anthems but particularly the SA one was great, I am English but have a South African brother in law so have started following the Springboks really looking forward to SA vs NZ in October in Cape Town.
Would have loved to visit the holy ground of our most RESPECTED opponent during my travelling phase in life, just missed it every year... MUST RESPECT KIWI'S❤
Is it usual in the southern hemisphere to have a singer from a country sing the opposing team's national anthem and the other way around? If so that's so cool :D
To a South African watching this, hello :) Question. Why do some South Africans only sing the part that start with the Afrikaans line and ignore the bits with Zulu, Xhosa and Sesotho?
It's a lot to do with the political history of the country, many South Africans learned the old anthem (Die Stem van Suid-Afrika, which is partly used in the new Afrikaans Stanza) since 1957, with the new verses only coming in 1994 & current format in 1997. Rugby was historically a white (mostly Afrikaans) sport in SA, and as such white Afrikaaners sing their parts. I was born after the new anthem was made, so I grew up with the new anthem, and we still get louder in the Afrikaans section, not sure why, it's just more conducive to belting out than the first three stanzas. It's the same situation with the New Zealand anthem, most people don't sing the Maori part in the beginning.
They've adopted it in New Zealand, I've been to a stadium where the Kiwis blasted it out. But in South Africa, very common for parts of the crowd to remain switched off until the Afrikaans stanza. But thank you for clarifying!
If you're talking about in-stadium crowd volume, we do blast it out as well, it's just not picked up well by the studio mics as they (annoyingly) focus on the singer, sometimes muting the crowd all together.
It's a war cry to rile up the All Blacks and intimidate the opposition, when it's done at home, fine, when it's done away? The away crowd should have the right to answer the challenge in a way that they see fit.
![National Anthems (& Haka) - South Africa vs New Zealand [TRC16 ; Rd6]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
