WHETHER in the build up to the game, during the match, in celebrating victory or to console yourself in the event of defeat, surely the Rugby World Cup final warrants something appropriate in the glass for any self-respecting fan of the game. And for Springbok supporters, what better choice than a drink from the home of a Springbok, present or past!

The family of Pieter-Steph du Toit in the 2023 Springbok squad is based at the Kloovenburg estate in the Swartland town of Riebeek-Kasteel. Perhaps a wine from their ‘Eight Feet’ range?

He’s not the only Bok to have won the world cup for South Africa who has an interest in the Cape winelands. Schalk Burger’s family have a farm in Wellington where they make reds and whites under the Welbedacht and Meerkat labels. Plus ‘The Beast‘, Tendai Mtawarira, has a collection of wines, one of which was made at the Holden Manz cellar in Franschhoek.

Or what about the Bokke who wore the green and gold before there was a world cup. Hempies du Toit is the owner of Annandale in the Helderberg valley of Stellenbosch. Jannie Engelbrecht’s son is the boss at Rust en Vrede just up the road from Annandale where besides an impressive portfolio of red wines they also have a 12-year-old potstill brandy. Boland Coetzee developed Vriesenhof on the slopes of Stellenbosch Mountain. ‘The Legend’ range of wines at Windmeul in Paarl is named after former director TPD Briers, and they also make a brandy, a VSOP Reserve.

Let’s not forget the Springbok who scored the first try against New Zealand’s All Blacks on South African soil back in 1928! Albertus Viljoen was the patriarch of the Van der Merwe family at Alvi’s Drift in Worcester and there are some ‘icon’ wines named in his honour.

Or… you could splash out on the ‘Webb Ellis’ from Neil Ellis Wines at the beginning of the Helshoogte pass in Stellenbosch – Webb Ellis being the name of the trophy presented to the Rugby World Cup winners, with William Webb Ellis thought to have ‘invented’ rugby football. So okay, the Ellis’s flagship wine is actually named after the families of Neil and his wife Stephanie, whose maiden name was Webb, but still…