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Carlos Parreira’s new-look Bafana Bafana team seem “Bok” for a bit of fun.
Actually, this photo is doing the rounds on email under the heading: “This is the only way Bafana will ever win the World Cup!”
Well done to Morne Steyn, who despite the incessant booing by the Newlands crowd, produced a brilliant kicking display to lead the Blue Bulls to a nail-biting 21-19 win over Western Province.
Let me say up front that I was supporting Province on the day, but quite honestly, the behaviour of their fans turned my stomach.
It’s nothing new, of course. I can remember as a school kid in the early 1980s being disgusted by their booing while opponents took penalty kicks. For heaven’s sake, WP have just been penalised for illegal play – why boo the opposition?
Sure, this Newlands bunch are not the only stadium crowd guilty of such behaviour, but somehow they do seem the worst – at least in South Africa.
In the first Currie Cup semifinal of the day, I think the Sharks fans were well behaved as a whole.
Frankly, the WP mob marred an otherwise brilliant contest – one of the best I’ve seen this year. To quote that old cliche – rugby was the winner and in this case, the WP fans were the deserved losers! (One has to assume that these idiotic hypocrites actually cheer Steyn when he plays for the Springboks.)
If any Springboks hope to catch the 2010 Soccer World Cup final live at Soccer City on July 11 next year, they will have to get themselves dropped from the squad to be there.
According to the Tri-Nations schedule released today, the Boks begin their title defence with a double-header against the All Blacks – in Auckland on July 10 and in Wellington on July 17 – and then a week later they’ll take on Australia in Brisbane. Talk about a tough start!
While the Boks will miss the World Cup final, I reckon Bafana Bafana won’t be there either – well, not on the pitch anyway.
I can recall as a 14-year-old rugby fan going to Stellenbosch one Saturday afternoon to watch the club team I supported, Villagers, take on Victorians, Maties’ second team.
Villagers won the match, I think 30-21, but they lost the try count 4-3. A win may have been a win, but there was always a menacing element to being on the wrong side of the try count statistic. That’s probably because I was brought up on the principle that rugby is about scoring tries. Luckily for me, Villagers tightened up their defence and they never leaked that number of tries again that season, going on to clinch the Western Province league as well as the knockout competition.
I admit that the game of rugby is substantially different now to what it was back then, but even still, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something to be read into Saturday’s Tri-Nations match – comfortably won by the Boks 29-17, but with Australia taking the try count 2-1.
I wonder what will happen when the Boks get matched up front and have to use their backs to swing the match? The lack of creativity behind the pack (with the exception of the phenomenal Fourie du Preez) is a worrying factor for me. Yes, Victor Matfield’s try was a superb piece of play, sparked by John Smit’s grubber, but it’s a sad day when the forwards possess more flair than the backs.
Long may the Bok pack – and Morne Steyn’s boot – rule the rugby park!
Phew! Coach Peter de Villiers has decided to stick with Bok hero flyhalf Morne Steyn for the Tri-Nations Test against Australia in Cape Town.
Check out the latest news here.
I was trying to be cautiously optimistic after the first win over the All Blacks, but after this weekend’s victory, I reckon this Tri-Nations is for the Boks to lose! It probably won’t come this easy again.
