The aromas hit you virtually from stepping out of the station and on to the Whitton Road that runs down from Twickenham town centre towards the amphitheatre now known as Allianz Stadium. Up the nostrils the scent of braais, biltong and boerewors swirled from the stands along the street side, the many South African shop-keeps in this pleasant patch of suburban London glad to have compatriots for company on the day the Springboks took over Twickenham.
It really is quite a sight, a great migration to rival any of those across the Highveld plains. Out of every corner of the southwest of the city the South Africans emerge, the train down from Waterloo busier and busier still as it progresses through Wandsworth and Clapham Junction. They come early, too, all backing the Bokke with shirts of deep green. Nominally an Argentina home fixture, this was as partisan a South African crowd as you could find; Springbok visits to this particular parish may be becoming more and more regular but enthusiasm for Siya Kolisi’s double world champions has not yet dimmed.
