Welcome to a general blog where thoughts as pure as freshly laundered linen are hung out to dry a few weeks after the event.
A Little Local Diviculty
Surely he’s the Don King of rugby, Springbok coach, Peter de Villiers or ‘Div’ as he’s known in the meedya, with his injudicious ‘rugby’s not ballet’ pronouncement a few weeks back. Best I can say about it is that nobody died though 7 players were hospitalised. The comments had a somewhat comical echo a week later when the Springboks team, management, water boys and I dare say the cleaning lady in the locker room decided to give the IRB the two fingers in protest at Bakkies Bothas’ ban for shoulder charging at ruck time. Wearing ‘Justice #4’ armbands the Boks showed the ballet in their temperament and neatly demonstrated what prima donnas they are with a collective regression into childishness.
When I saw the armbands I thought Mandela had replaced his adopted Francois Pienaar no. 6 shirt with the more tent-like garment of no.4 Bakkies Botha and required to be freed all over again. The truth was rather more prosaic, according to IAfrica.com, the armbands were commemorating Victor Matfield’s gardener, ‘Justice’ who was recovering from scarlet fever!
Where Quotas Dare!
There is no doubt that Peter De Villiers, who backed the armbands saga, is a more political than rugby appointment given there were far more capable manager/coaches than he available. Springbok rugby appears to be in the grip of a quasi political realignment which aims to reset its root and branch culture previously dominated by the Afrikaner to one which in the words of a government minister accurately reflects the makeup of the nation.
There is nothing wrong with this ideal except that the non white has never been the root and branch of the rugby union game in South Africa even if some were prevented from playing it by dint of colour prejudice. A parallel, though for now solely hypothetical sporting analogy to rugby union in South Africa exists in Ireland. It would be were GAA forced to adopt a positive discrimination policy to assimilate protestants into GAA by dint of legislation. Generally speaking Protestants do not naturally gravitate towards GAA. The non white probably views Springbok rugby in much the same light.
It is not an easy sight on the eye to see players elevated above their true ability by dint of the colour of their skin. From my perspective were there to be a political drive to assimilate Protestants into GAA in the same manner I would be very uneasy seeing sportsmen and women of limited abilities being promoted above their station simply to prove a political point to the world. History has shown that this kind of manipulation is ultimately self defeating and breeds lingering resentment which inevitably comes back to bite.
The Archipelago Tackles Trimble
Writing on the UAFC site the Archipelago singled out Andrew Trimble for his tackling as an example of were Ulster’s latest head coach should adjust his sights and set Trimby among others straight in the tackling stakes. Archi has a point. It is embarrassing to see professionally trained rugby players of impressive physical size fall off tackling due to poor technique.
I hated tackly practice and didn’t much relish tackling but could put a man on his back in a head-on tackle if suitably fired up. A training session one evening in which I spent about 15 minutes tackling a 16 stone wing forward helped hone my technique, added to advice from more experienced players willing to share their knowledge. Little tips helped too, such as look at a player’s shorts somewhere in the region of his balls and no matter how many dummies he tries to sell you with the ball in hand it was sure fire way of nailing your opponent. Like Archipelago’s cheek to cheek tip for tackling passed on to him by a then fledgling McLaughlin it is these skills in the fine arts of rugby that are still prevalent today as they were yesterday.
Like all wisdom, it is passed down from generation to generation by the torch bearers of each age. Rugby still has basic skills which resonate through each era and it requires the torch bearers to instill those basic skills into each new generation. Perhaps it’s the Academy system which sanitises and programme’s players skills but I sometimes feel those young players would be better schooled in basic technique if they sampled a bit of coarse rugby for a season.
The ‘Colombia Express’ Still On track
‘The train’ is a new expression for me in the Tour De France. The ‘Columbia train’ has been much in evidence this year over the flat stages. The first 3 riders of the HTC team take the speed of the peloton up to 50 kilometres per hour over the last 40-30 km and increasing it thereon in with the final speed up to about 65 kmph (40mph) in the finishing strait. At these speeds they launch their Green jersey contender Mark Cavendish to the finish line out of the slipstream of HTC teammate Mark Renshaw with about 300 -200 metres to go. This is easier said than done and requires co-ordination and teamwork to get the 9 team riders into position at the head of the peloton of about 150 riders and stay there. The train’ if executed well is a spectacular sight even for the non cycling fan.
Last year I travelled north by about 70 miles to see Le Tour cycle past a gite I’d stayed in. It was the second time I’d seen the Tour De France live and disappointingly 3 guys, ahead of the peloton, ambled through chatting amicably to one another, followed 5 minutes later by the main bunch of riders in similar mode. About 30 of the riders had a pit stop at the side of the road 30 metres from where I was standing.
Interesting as it was to see how the TdF cyclists continue to ‘race’ and also answer natures call, I was annoyed at the lack of pace from the riders having confidently told the rest of the family the peloton would hurtle through. After more than a few years watching Le Tour it has dawned on me that the peleton doesn’t usually wind up speed until the final 40 kilometres of a flat stage and watching it 90 klicks from the finish is like watching club cyclists out for a Sunday spin. Actually it took the ex Tour pros from ITV4 to explain how it all happened, another example of knowledge passed on to the less enlightened and naïve spectator.
Soccer Bandwagon Rolls On.
Whilst Cavendish and another British rider Bradley Wiggins ride the tour to little acclaim in their homeland, the great bandwagon that is soccer rolls on. It is the off season but you’d never think it given the amount of print and energy devoted to it by our demented and devoted local and British press. Ludicrously Irish League teams have been trying to qualify in Europe with one manager commenting that it was so difficult, what with players on their hols and so forth. Naturally none of them qualified yet again, this season.
A Million to Spare? Ronnie says, “I am worth it!!”
Meanwhile there is a worldwide recession on but you’d never think it as Ronaldo is the subject of a king’s ransom in transfer money. No footballer is worth the kind of money that has been paid for him in my opinion. I don’t watch much soccer but I’ve seen him play on one of the grandest stages of all, the European cup and he has conspicuously failed to show when it really mattered.
Basically I don’t need 2 million to survive in this world but I’ve wondered what it would be like to possess a few million quid. In insane moments I‘ve speculated on what I might spend it on. Say a corporate box at Ravers should one become available or one of those expensive seats near the boxes and a 100K to the next stage of redevelopment. 10K to Dewi for promotion of the FRU site and various other sums to noble causes such as the Royal’s Children’s hospital.
So if there are any of you millionaires reading this, could you let me know, does a million quid to spare buy you happiness?
As BJ Botha might say, that’ll do for now.
Corrections, comments or questions?