Photos: DOOKphoto

If Johannesburg were a rugby player, she’d line up at fullback. What, exactly, does a city in South Africa have in common with a bone-jostling contact sport? Well, in rugby, the fullback is the last line of defence, so when you’re in position and you catch a deep kick, there’s nobody behind you to pass the ball off to. You’ve gotta make something happen yourself. It’s survival of the fittest back there.

And since our short-stay apartment in Johannesburg – or Jozi or Joburg or whatever you want to call it – came with a sweet little backyard, the ball was in our hands. So like good sports, we ran with it by hosting our own going-away party. The recipe for a quintessential Joburg Sunday called for a dozen friends, lamb chops and boerewors sausages, copious volumes of beer and a full slate of sports on the television. By Sunday morning, my wife, Sarah, and I had three of our four bases covered.

“You don’t have any beer?” our friend Marten barked over the phone. “Are you putting me on? The bottle stores close on Sunday! Just don’t tell anyone or they won’t even show up. I’m deadly serious.” He sent us to an Indian grocery store just up the street from the Wanderers cricket stadium that sold beer on Sundays from a concealed cold room. The proprietor, a Mr. Lala, was only too happy to furnish us with a fleet of Castle Lager, Hansa and Carling tall cans. Our conversation migrated from small talk about the weather to a serious back and forth on the merits of South African versus Indian cricket styles.

“Before you go,” he said, putting his arm around me, “you must meet this man. He is one of the most important sporting men in our country.” I found myself shaking hands with a hulking black South African – shaved head, leather jacket and muscles to spare. This was a man exuding what they call presence. “Kaizer Motaung. Pleasure,” he said as his giant mitt swallowed mine, threatening to crush it. Kaizer Motaung – the Kaizer, founder of Kaizer Chiefs and godfather of South African soccer – handed me his yellow-and-black business card and then carried a foot-tall stack of newsprint out of the shop. The papers contained the day-after reports of his team’s glorious victory in what is perhaps the greatest grudge-match rivalry on the African continent: Chiefs versus Pirates.

It’s no mystery why such a passionate, high-stakes rivalry would take root here. Johannesburg is the richest city in Africa. Boasting equal parts possibility and enterprising get-aheadness, it lures ambitious people from around the world – Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Britain, India – as well as from South Africa’s countryside. But any city of newcomers needs a point of reference for strangers to coalesce around. So while in L.A., you can always strike up a conversation about the latest celebrity-rehab scoop, in Jozi, the lingua franca is sports.

Photos: DOOKphoto (portrait); Nick Aldridge

The obsession with sports is national and deep-rooted, but it gained particular potency in the city where the South Africans won the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. Then-president Nelson Mandela, clad in a Springboks jersey and hat, presented the trophy to Afrikaner captain Francois Pienaar at downtown’s Ellis Park Stadium (last year renamed Coca-Cola Park). In that famous, symbolic moment of post-apartheid reconciliation, even the city’s most sports-sceptical citizens (and they are few) recognized the capacity for athletics to bring people – such as Kaizer, Lala and me – together.

Johannesburg feels like the post-grad destination of every jock from your high school. People drive fast cars, eat a lot of meat and wear rugby shirts in every conceivable social setting. Casual lunch with the squeeze? Of course. Best friend’s wedding? Sure! But mostly, Joburgers just can’t stop talking about sports. Local chatter is split between the Big Three: cricket, rugby and soccer. All the country’s most important matches are played here, in South Africa’s biggest stadiums. And now, the city is gearing up for its biggest hosting gig ever: the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

Everywhere you go, “2010,” as it’s called, is on the tip of the tongue – or the tip of the toe, this being soccer. Fifteen matches will be staged at the city’s two spruced-up stadiums, and some 94,700 fans will witness the final at Soccer City. Organizers are pulling out all the stops and pushing right to the finish line with stadium renovations and infrastructure projects, including the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link, a massive rail venture that will essentially merge the twin cities of Joburg and Pretoria into a 10-million-person megalopolis.