{"id":21457,"date":"2013-07-27T00:20:15","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T22:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/meet-south-africas-lonely-brumbies-fan\/"},"modified":"2013-07-27T00:20:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T22:20:15","slug":"meet-south-africas-lonely-brumbies-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/meet-south-africas-lonely-brumbies-fan\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet South Africa\u2019s lonely Brumbies fan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t    <a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/?attachment_id=11028\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11028\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11028  \" alt=\"Brumbies player Jesse Mogg poses for a photo with South African fan Pieter Viljoen. Photo: Rugby Heaven\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/548b3_TO-art729-brumbies-20130726103707665044-620x349-600x337.jpg\" width=\"432\" height=\"243\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brumbies player Jesse Mogg poses for a photo with South African fan Pieter Viljoen. Photo: Rugby Heaven<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s been called a traitor, travelled thousands of kilometres and is preparing for an onslaught of abuse in Pretoria \u2013 meet Pieter Viljoen, the only ACT Brumbies fan in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s the qualified electrician who works at a mine and wants to move to <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Australia\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=-35.308,149.1245spn=10.0,10.0q=-35.308,149.1245 (Australia)t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation\">Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s a world away from Canberra and the freezing winter gripping the capital.<\/p>\n<p>But Viljoen\u2019s Brumbies passion started well before <a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/neck-injury-cuts-mccabes-rugby-season-short\/\" target=\"_blank\">coach Jake White<\/a> ignited a South African connection in the capital.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old has been on board for 15 years supporting the enemy and copping it from his countrymen for backing the visitors.<\/p>\n<p>The Brumbies will play the Pretoria Bulls in the Super Rugby <a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/matfield-wants-to-make-loftus-count\/\" target=\"_blank\">semi final at Loftus Versfeld<\/a> on Sunday morning Australian time with the winner advancing to the championship match.<\/p>\n<p>And while most Brumbies fans will stay up late in Canberra, Viljoen will be fighting a one-man crusade in the stands in Pretoria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, we\u2019ll be the only two people in the crowd wearing Brumbies jerseys [in Pretoria],\u201d Viljoen said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSouth Africans obviously describe me as a traitor, a person without patriotism or integrity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I feel that every guy has a choice to support whoever they want. I expect some cheeky comments \u2026 but I\u2019ve learned to live with it.\u201d \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canberratimes.com.au\/rugby-union\/brumbies\/meet-south-africas-very-lonely-brumbies-fan-20130726-2qoa7.html\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Dutton<\/a><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\">Related articles<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.3news.co.nz\/Brumbies-in-Mission-Improbable\/tabid\/415\/articleID\/305881\/Default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/548b3_187093058_80_801.jpg\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.3news.co.nz\/Brumbies-in-Mission-Improbable\/tabid\/415\/articleID\/305881\/Default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Brumbies in Mission Improbable<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/?px\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/0abb7_zemified_h.png\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brumbies player Jesse Mogg poses for a photo with South African fan Pieter Viljoen. Photo: Rugby Heaven He\u2019s been called a traitor, travelled thousands of kilometres and is preparing for an onslaught of abuse in Pretoria \u2013 meet Pieter Viljoen, the only ACT Brumbies fan in South Africa. He\u2019s the qualified electrician who works at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3258,830,885],"class_list":{"0":"post-21457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mysport","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-sport","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}