Reconciliation coming slow for South Africa

The winter sunshine and warmth that greeted Joe Schmidt’s Ireland squad as they touched down in South Africa last Monday morning was gratefully received by the tourists as they ran the 11-hour flight out of their systems and took a dip in the Atlantic Ocean.

A winter like this, with 25-degree heat and clear skies, would suit most of us who call rain-sodden Ireland home but when the sunshine eventually gave way to rain on Thursday it was all too brief for the local population and millions beyond Cape Town, host city for this evening’s first Test between South Africa and the Irish.

For this is a drought-stricken country. Below-average rainfall, increased temperatures and poor water-related infrastructure resulted in the South African government declaring a state of disaster in all but one of the country’s provinces. That included here in Western Cape, the region which extends along both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans with the Cape of Good Hope and nearby Cape Town, nestled beneath the imposing Table Mountain, at its corner.