OK, I promise – this is the last one for a while… But my colleague just sent me a very interesting article from an Australian newspaper about the quarter final match.
It’s refreshing to hear an Australian admit such things about the game and the South African players. And I was particularly proud of our boys when the journalist mentioned how well we took the defeat and basically said the Springboks were gentlemen to the end.
Here’s the article:
LIMITING THE POWER OF THE WHISTLE
There are no doubt a lot of Australian rugby supporters celebrating our victory over the Springboks yesterday. There are also a number of us that are wondering how on earth we managed to pull it off against a side that dominated possession and territory and lineouts. Now, I don’t want to take anything away from the Australian victory – our boys did perform superbly but on the day the Springboks were, we have to admit, the better side. The boks, as always were magnanimous in
defeat with a somewhat pragmatic approach to the result. I wonder what our boys would have said faced with the same situation of blatant incompetence by Mr Bryce Lawrence.
I support Australia and always will but for those of us that believe in fair play this was a hollow victory. This was very much like fighting a worthy opponent with one arm strapped behind his back – it leaves a bad taste. There were rumours about Mr Lawrence’s impartiality before kick-off from a lot of ex pat South Africans now living in Australia but we tend to dismiss these conspiracy theories with a grin. Certainly, Mr Lawrence’s performance on the field did nothing to dispel those theories. His performance was nothing short of abysmal. He did not award the bok try because of a dubious forward pass. I have looked and looked and to me, anyway, it did not look forward. Minutes later when the boks once again breached our defences and were well on the way to scoring another try, he called them back for a forward pass. If the first call was contentious, there certainly was nothing wrong with the second one. Here, I must ask – why not use the “eye in the sky”? An impressive expensive piece of equipment that should be used for such decisions.
He failed to penalise Pocock for slowing the ball down. If we had played like that against the All Blacks, they would not have been so quiet about it. – and rightly so. In the dying minutes of the game he was in full view of at least 2 high tackles by our boys that went unpunished. Any of these transgressions, if properly acted on, would have surely given the game to the Boks with their advantage over territory. To rub salt in the South African wounds, he awarded a high tackle to the Wallabies for a chest high tackle.
We won, but did we really? Our sport has always been regarded as a “hooligans game played by gentlemen” – If we do not want rugby union to degenerate into a farce that soccer can become we need to make sure that our refs are of suitable calibre. They need to be trustworthy gentlemen.
Mr Lawrence, I would advise against any planned holidays to South Africa for a couple of years.
Chris Davis
The Australian
*Image sourced here
Our Bokke, who art in New Zealand,
Today marks 100 days until the kick off at this year’s Rugby World Cup. Any die hard rugby supporter should be happy about this day. In fact, in South Africa, we’ve been encouraged to wear our Springbok Rugby jerseys in support of our boys 
I’m wearing mine with pride!
In commemoration of the build up, I thought I’d make a list of all the things I’ve learnt while supporting the Bokke:
I'm sorry, what did you say England? All the good teams have gone home already?
So GO FOR IT, BOKKE!!!! We’re with you every step of the way!!!
I finally figured it out! I know why I object so strongly to the Stormers’ new jerseys.
I don't think the players look too happy about the jerseys either...
If you look at all the other teams, they are all branded up the wazoo, so why shouldn’t the Stormers be. So the fact that the jerseys are branded is not the issue. And I’ll admit, I do have a beef with DHL (had really really crappy service from them over Christmas) and yes that does annoy me that they now sponsor my team. But the main issue I have is the yellowness of the logo and the way clashes so completely with the jersey and the history of the jersey. Never before have we had this giant block of yellow on our jerseys.
And now if you look at the other teams, you’ll see some have even more branding than us. Look at the Sharks, Mr Price is written absolutely everywhere!!! But it is just the writing. There is no massive block of colour stating “here is the advertising, pay attention to me”. The writing is part of the jersey, you are aware that it is there but it isn’t an afront to your senses.
And now I see that our dancing girls are in yellow and red… I’m sorry, but which team are they supporting? I’m completely confused by that one! How rude to have the Stormers girls not in blue!!!
So please Stormers management and sponsors, get a clue and give us nicer jerseys next year!
Now, I’ve spoken about WOO-ing and now it’s time to mention booing.
There is an alarming increase in sports fans booing at sports games, specifically at rugby matches. As a big rugby fan and a big supporter of The Stormers and The Springboks, I find it embarrassing that so many fans find it necessary to boo the opposing team. What really stings is the fact that the Newlands Faithful have become some of the worst culprits of booing. At least I can say we aren’t the only ones who do it. The New Zealand fans at Eden park today booed the Springboks like it was going out of fashion and they had absolutely no reason to, their team was winning!
I can’t understand why a person would boo. It isn’t sportsman-like. Now I know we aren’t actually the sportsmen here, we’re the fans, but we are representing our team and our province and our country. When a team from another country arrives to play, do we really want them to leave thinking we are all a bunch Neanderthals who can’t appreciate well-played sport? Well I certainly don’t!
I think the English have it right, if they are going to boo a team, it will be their own for not playing well. They try not to disrespect the team they are playing against.
I urge you, next time you’re at a sports match, encourage your team, give the ref hell for missing something and acknowledge good play by the opposition with a polite smattering of applause. Please try not to boo, you’re only embarrassing you and your team!
2012 © Faeron Wheeler , Read my blog... You know you want to!
