IT'S RUGBY'S last gasp before we go into a month of the round ball game. And what a gasp it promises to be. Ireland versus the Barbarians tonight; the Boks versus Wales tomorrow. As I write I am watching a replay of Leicester versus Saracens in the Guinness Premiership at Twickenham last Saturday, and what a humdinger that was. Truly amazing rugby, the lead switching backward and forward right up to the closing minutes and Leicester just snatching it in the end.
Somehow, the Super-14 final wasn't quite a humdinger. It's the kissing your cousin syndrome. When two South African sides are in the final, and neither is your own, you get a feeling of "Oh heck, so what?"Yet technically it was a good game and the Bulls showed they had the temperament and just reeled it in.
The Stormers unfortunately showed they don't have the temperament, not even after the final whistle. What did Schalk Burger think he was doing, whingeing about referee Craig Joubert the way he did? It's embarrassing, cry-baby stuff and his comments went all over the world.
I liked the response of Rugby365 columnist Paul Dobson, who referred Schalk to St Francis of Assisi and Springbok Boy Louw, of Paarl, in acceptance of what cannot be changed. St Francis: " God grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference." Boy Louw: "Looks at the scoreboard!"
Yes, Boy Louw was a great believer in the immutability of the referee's decision. When he retired from playing, he took up the referee's whistle. He was reffing a club game in Cape Town one Saturday afternoon when he awarded rather a scrappy-looking try.
"Oom Boy, dis nooit 'n drie!" protested the defending skipper.
"Dink jy nie so nie? Lees vanaand se Cape Argus."
No, the whingeing was unseemly and expert analysis has shown it was altogether unjustified. Besides, Joubert went to Maritzburg College, which makes him as close to saintliness as it's possible for a rugby referee to be.
Dobson also quotes the American basketball player, Tom Canterbury: "The trouble with referees is that they just don't care which side wins."
Hear, hear! Let's have an end to this nonsense!
Tonight's Baa-Baas game is to be played at Limerick, a town that gave its name to a verse form. Example:
A naive young lady of Cork
Believed she was brought by the stork;
But after a day
With a gent named O'Shea
She was doubtful of that kind of talk.
The Limerick match commentary should be worth a listen.
Wales will be hungry tomorrow. A lot of their players have hit peak form in the club competitions, while we have a patched-together look. This is going to be a tough 'un.
Meanwhile, the round ball game takes over from next week and I take a breather, not being expert in the game, though I have every respect for it. I shall be heading for San Francisco for a few weeks where I take over as PT instructor in a nudist colony, the regular instructor having booked off with post-traumatic stress syndrome after sessions of star-jumping. But we College men are made of sterner stuff. I shall keep you informed.
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