Do we never learn i ask thee?!
Greetings to you my fellow rugby lovers! Man what a splendid weekend of rugby it was. The Crusaders firmly fired the first salvo, let the rest of the super rugby world know that they might not be leading the NZ conference but dont count us out. I feel for Robbie F and Andy Ellis for missing out on AB selection particularly Andy, cos that guy is the consistent senior scrummy the ABs need at this time, but i guess Piri did perform for the ABs come RWC time so it is right for Steve H to give him a shot and what he does with it well thats up to him because there is talent aplenty longing to fill that spot! The Blues played their best game since they played the Bulls this weekend but man the Chiefs are just delicious to watch along with the Canes, who won in Sydney for the first time in who knows how long. How good was Rene Ranger? Then the Lions took the Sharks out of water and just gored them...dead!! Then the Stormers weakened as, went to the Bull ring and tore into the Springboks... i mean Bulls.
I guess all the Southern Hemisphere teams are a bit of a disadvantage during this June Test window. ABs squad is pretty expected, with the exception of Ellis and inclusion of Piri, Australia seem to be struggling with injuries and their squad seems pretty weakened as we saw on tuesday. They might well struggle against Wales, their only saving grace is the fact that Warren Gatland is not able to attend to this tour due to broken ankles unfortunately.
Ok now to the Boks...i really have tried to hold back from saying anything because we have had enough of this negativity and race speak etc. I have never really been a Heyneke fan. He knew how to make the Bulls operate. Before i proceed let me just give you all his accolades courtesy of Wikipedia...
• Vodacom Cup Champions with the Blue Bulls in 2001
• Absa Currie Cup Champions in 2002, 2003 and 2004 and joint champions in 2006
• Vodacom Super Rugby (Super 14) Champions in 2007
Ok so he has been selected as the National coach and I guess in SA there was no other, frankly left to me I would have given Pdivvy another shot, because this year would have been the year where he could impose himself on his players, because the old guard were all gone. So anyway that wasn't done and what do I know...So H M is now the boss, and as most coaches would do they will pull in players that they know and have worked with and understand them. Fine. But dude, this is no ordinary country! Sport is really the one thing we are really good at other than tourism and lovely ladies. Its the one time that this country speak s with one voice, think 1995, 1996 (african cup), 2010, 2011 RWC, and hopefully but doubtfully 2013 Afcon. Now here you are, you know what Jake White went through, you choose your very first squad and you want me to believe that Marcel Coetzee and Jacques Potgieter are far and away better players than Siya Kolisi (let alone Brussouw), JJ Engelbrecht who i havent seen deliver anything of substance is a more promising player than Juan De Jongh who has been tried and tested, worse still WYNAND OLIVIER??!! that bra, jusus let me just calm down... then there is no room for Gio Aplon a guy who has that missing x factor, who hardly lets the Boks or the Stormers down on defence and attack. If we had to judge it on this year alone i would even go as far as saying Gio has been more prolific that wunderkind Lambie and Sideshow Zane.
Then you nominate your first match day 22 and regardless of whether you win or not, what message are you sending out to the large majority of your population? Then you ask why so many non-whites in SA support the All Blacks? I was working my way back from wanting every team the Boks played against to beat them to supporting them against most teams. But 18 years later and you are telling me we cant get at least 5 players of colour in the match day 22, not a helluva lot to ask for is it. I can name the 5 right now, ok Habana if we must (and this year he does deserve to be there becauase he is muuuch better than he has been in a while) JP, but i think Mapoe outplayed him on the weekend, Beast (even though i am not sure if he is a citizen or a work permit holder), Juan and Chilliboy. Now Chilliboy, you see what i was saying, just like Shimmy, professional bench warmer! This was a fat smack in his face. No 2 to Smit, then along came Bissie, granted he has been playing some good rugby, but he is a 5/6 penalty a game dude, currently sitting at no 9 on the most penalties conceded in the Super rugby 2012. Granted Strauss has been having a fabulous season i am a fan, but we have to have some sort of consistency, because the only reason a player like Spies is in that team is because he's been there before, because he is dog diarrhoea toilet. Then, then, then, you look at the Super rugby log yeah and who is on top the Stormers, but how many of their players were selected 3, but that i understand a little bit there because a lot of the players that would have been seleceted are injured, well 3 Bekker, Schalla and Duane perhaps, so thats 3+siya, juan, gio+3 selected=9 errbadi happy. Not because of anything other than the fact that they deserve to be there!
Yeah you cant please everyone with your team selections, but you can at least show that we are trying to move forward, but on the other hand you dont want to start of your tennure losing, especially to the Poms, but man oh man, you know where you live, you know politicians would love nothing better than to divert peoples attention from the fact that they really aren't doing what they are meant to be doing. You know that the majority of this country is non white and this thing is a sensitive one...ask the bra who did that painting.
Yes England are a large bunch of men but they are robots, yet they have space for this guy Wade, who is minute, but has gas to burn. I think 'we' will beat the English 3-0 or 2-1, but lets see come quad nation time, if this is the same team that is selected and the same mentality of mo er hulle, then mark my words 60-68% win rate, majority coming against the northern hemisphere and minow teams
But i guess give the bra a chance, but man he has started off sending the absolutely wrong signals about the way he intends playing and also his selection policy, missed a trick there boss, starting off with people questioning you is no way to start your job in one of the must unnerving coaching jobs in the world!!! 5 man, just 5 out of 22, it CANT be so difficult man!!!
Soo looking forward to my saturday though, happy viewing
