A tolerable weekend
WHAT a weekend of rugby. First the thriller of the Sharks against the Lions – a running of the ball; near-faultless handling; terrific driving in the loose; ferocious tackling; minimal kicking.
And this true of both sides. Should this not be the pattern for the Boks in next year's World Cup?
And then the Test – the Currie Cup pattern adopted already! They've already turned the corner. As Naas Botha told the post-match panel: "We started this competition playing a certain type of rugby and we ended it playing a very different type of rugby."
Indeed, Naas, indeed! Hooray, the penny's dropped! No more "percentage" rugby. Real rugby at last.
Lambie's new role – trotting on late and saving the game. Two Tests running now. What a monster place-kick!
Yes, a tolerable weekend's rugby.
Babes in arms
BABIES joining their Springbok dads as they the line up for the anthems before an international … it happened at Newlands a week ago, Bryan Habana and skipper Jean de Villiers holding their youngsters as they sang the emotional lines.
Is this something cute or is it something pretty gormless?
I had phone calls suggesting the latter. Then a rugby colloquium that meets once a month in a hostelry in Virginia gave it a resounding thumbs-down, those present – some of them senior players and administrators of yesteryear - vehement in their denunciation of the practice, saying it has no place in rugby.
A motion was carried unanimously that at future Tests, babies, wives, girlfriends, pet dogs and mothers-in-law should not be allowed on the field.
No babies were in evidence at Ellis Park on Saturday. It's gratifying that our colloquium's influence should be so instantly felt.
Third oldest
READER Mike Meekin gently corrects a piece in our sports pages in which the Moor Cup is described as "the oldest piece of silverware in world rugby." In fact it's probably the third oldest, he says.
"The first was in 1874, a Hospitals Cup won by Guys in London.
"The Ulster Schools Cup was first awarded in 1876, the same year as the Moor Cup. The Ulster Schools Cup final is played for on St Patrick's Day (March 17) - a date known to every civilised man.
"Therefore the Moor Cup is probably the third oldest, given the difference in seasons."
EG delicacy
A MENU comes this way, dated March 9, 1985. It's from the Balmoral Hotel, in Kokstad, and a seven-course lunch, followed by cheese and biscuits and coffee, cost R6.50.
But here's a curiosity. Between the minestrone and the sweetcorn on toast is "Fish Manure".
Is this an East Griqualand delicacy? Or did they perhaps mean "meuniere", which is a flour-based sauce that goes with fish?
You never know. East Griqualand is a place of many quaint customs.
Treats
INVESTMENT analyst Dr James Greener notes in his latest grumpy newsletter that the furore over the chartering of a jet to take President Zuma to New York for a pointless talk-fest has at least revealed that there is a kind of 'Treats Handbook' for this kind of thing.
"It seems that there is a caste system for important people, who are classified from being 'very very', through merely 'very', down to 'not very' at all.
"The boss man gets a private bedroom and en-suite bathroom with a shower on board the plane … all these details merely confirm that we have an obscenely self-important, self-indulgent and nearly self-appointed troop of leaders who are rewarding themselves with levels of comfort which greatly exceed the value they provide to their paymasters."
No change
IAN GIBSON, poet laureate of Hillcrest, has just returned from an invigorating trip to Italy, to find nothing much has changed at home. He pens a few lines on the Nkandla business.
It's called the Nkandla saga,
With the President in a protective laager;
Cry The Beloved Constitution,
No hope for restitution;
It's all opposition party palaver.
Tailpiece
A STREAKER runs through a golf club with a towel covering his face, past three ladies sitting in the lounge.
"At least it's not my husband," says one.
"No, it's not," says the second.
"He's not even a member," says the third.
Last word
I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true.
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