In the wake of what was a dramatic and somewhat speculative series win over the British and Irish Lions by the Springboks this last Saturday, one gets left asking the questions .... Why on earth was it so close - what the dickens was Schalk Burger thinking and what ingenius "colourful" changes is our ever creative coach PDV aka "The Snor" going to be making this weekend now that the series is wrapped up and we have what the presenters on Super Sport like to term, A "dead rubber" on our hands?????
For starters, yes, in 20 years time We will look at the record books and all it will show is we were 2-0 up after 2 games in the 2009 lions tour to South Africa, and yes, ultimately it is good enough - I would rather win this way than lose - but surely it must be noted at the present that we have a certain quality of players in this country that should have outright dominated this lions team. By no means am I saying that it was going to be easy, it never is to beat a lions team in a series, but if you look at the All Blacks annihilation of the lions in 2005 (where the Lions basically won 90% of their tour games just like this tour), you have to ask: How could they do it and we can't? I suppose they had a slightly weaker squad than the one on this tour, but they did still have some superstars including the likes of Johnny Wilkinson and Jason Robinson - who were still classy at that particular time.
I guess I am just extremely dissapointed at what ultimately has to be called a poor but couragious showing at Loftus. We won the game and We won the series and I am sure everyone who watched was filled with elation as the penalty went over in the 81st minute and sure it made fantastic TV, but so would a 30 point drumming with 7 tries have been, which would have been my preferance. I remember people a lot more jolly during the Bulls Super 14 final......
Schalks 53rd second MAD indescretion can only be hailed as temporary insanity - I have a lot of respect for this guy but wow.....He really put us on the back peddle from the get go and the Lions just dominated us upfront and got the points and the rest of the half we were lacklustre and huffing and puffing at our own fortress Loftus. Then the Boks came on in the second half and for around 30 minutes in total played the way they should have the entire series (and maybe I should include the opening 60 minutes at Durban, but even there we never got 5+ phases once in the game).
We have a team, or should I say the players to dramatically revolutionise the rugby world, and blow all opposition out of the way, but we persist with inadequate coaching and undeserving players because of certain systems SARU have in place, yet it is our "beloved" coach who is up for racial allegations after comments made at a press conference about the selection of Ricky Januarie - Need I remind everyone of what happened to Andre Markgraff after his racial slurs - he rightfully got the sack and thank goodness too because he was also not the juiciest cherry on the bush - metaphorically speaking of course.
But he will come through it with flying colours of course - no pun intended.....seriously this time...... - and we now eagerly await the test team to face the Lions in the 3rd and final test for what we hope will be a 3-0 whitewash, or what should be a 3-0 whitewash. We could see the infamous Earl "The Pearl" Rose entering the fray, and maybe Ricky Januarie also both hitting the bench, who knows. I wouldn't put it past him. He likes to cause a bity of drama every now and then. I just wish we had of won it the way we were supposed to or could have - guess its easy talking from in front of a computer screen, but surely most people kinda get the idea that we cut it a little fine, where we should have dominated completely. Even a weak WP and a resurgent Free State team showed what it was to really go to the limit to try and win the tour games - why the sharks and the lions were so utterly dissapointing is beyond me, but thats another nut to crack which will take far too long.
In conclusion a win is a win and I dont want to sound unappreciative to the Boks who I really support to the very last drop no matter what, but with the political tide that sweeps our rugby shores it is becoming more and more apparent each day that mediocracy is acceptable and transformation must come at any cost - May I stand corrected in my views this coming weekend with the Boks blowing a now highly disheartened Lions team back to the British Isles where they belong, because nothing would please me more!!!!!!!
