THE DESPERADOES among us were threatening to stay on at the Street Shelter for the Over-40s – where they were holding a Shunters Arms "reunion" last Friday night – right through until kick-off at 6.30. The more sensible and sedate among us left the Shelter about midnight to visit the Thunder Bar and talk rugby with the Ukrainian lovelies.
What a match! We improve with every outing. This time the line-outs were magnificent. So was the mauling. So was the threequarter play. Has Bismarck du Plessis ever had a better game? This was the business!
Yet we lost – narrowly, after holding the lead for so much of the match. You can probably put it down to jetlag in the closing quarter. It's in so many ways a repeat of our close games against the Bulls and the Stormers. Anything could have happened. But we can be upbeat because, playing like this, our luck is going to turn. We showed we have it in us to win at least two matches on this down-under jaunt and take a bonus point in the others. Then win our home matches. Super rugby is like a Tolstoy novel, not like Hollywood. Plumtree is our Bagration.
And the Brumbies tomorrow (Known as Australian Capital Territory in the days before nomenclature was Yankeefied at the insistence of the marketing Ponytails. Am I alone in needing a geographic fix for any rugby side? Who are these Highlanders, Hurricanes, Wombats and Armadilloes? Where do they come from?). Yes, the Brumbies took the Highlanders (actually Otago) last weekend but I saw little cause for panic. I say we have the measure of them. We'll have settled. Our pack is about to come into its own. Hier kom 'n ding!
Meanwhile, I expect every union in South Africa has been flying the flags at half-mast this week at the news that the International Rugby Board have dropped Bryce Lawrence from their top panel of referees. Lawrence it was who made such a hash of our quarterfinal against Australia in the World Cup last year.
Yes, there are rumblings of discontent at the quality of reffing. Also at the way the rules are being tweaked. A fellow who quaffs ale with me, and who had 15 years in first division club rugby as a front-ranker, says he detects insidious attempts to phase out the scrum as we know it.
The scrum has already been castrated, he says. We are close to a point where props have to push dead straight with no movement allowed up or down, left or right; and a bind that neutralises their arms. This might make for a faster game, quicker restarts and great TV viewing – but it's not the unique game we grew up with.
It's a worrying thought. Should TV and marketing be allowed to call the shots in this way? Like with the names?
But it's a Tolstoy novel Many a twist and turn lies ahead. One match at a time. The Brumbies tomorrow. Knicker elastic time!
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