Conservative Bok team as usual.

So it appears that Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has stuck to his guns in selecting his team to tour Britain next month. Choosing basically the same squad he has chosen the whole year with the exception of Cheetahs wing Raymond Rhule who has had an impressive season, helping the baby Boks to win the World Championship as well as ending up as the leading try scorer in the Currie Cup. I can’t help but to wonder why only he gets a chance and not so many others who have performed so well this year. A lot has been spoken about the long list of injuries that face the Boks, this then would have to make you think about things, maybe the players are being over worked and with a long Super Rugby season as well as Currie Cup you can understand why. If I was the coach I would have rested the “stalwarts” of the team and given the younger guys that performed well in the Currie Cup a chance to show what they can do, this way you give your players a rest as well as seeing other options. Players like Demitri Catrakilis who had an outstanding final, out playing Patrick Lambie doesn’t even get a look at, Paul Jordaan, a brilliant player for the Sharks this year, Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe, Deon Fourie all players who have been great this year and deserve a chance to play for the Boks. These are just a few names, I can go on and on but what would be the point, the coach is ever conservative and no matter how much we want them to play we know that they have no chance. This is why players move overseas to play for those countries. Josh Strauss for example who has moved to Ireland in order to play for them in the 2015 World Cup, he could have made a huge contribution had he been added to the Bok team. Some would argue that its because of our wealth of talent, yes we do have loads of talent in South Africa, but we’re not using them correctly. We would rather select players because they have played before rather than picking players who are in the best form at the time. Coach Heyneke Meyer would say that you need continuity in a team, but my understanding of a national team is; it’s the collection of the countries best players. Not players who used to be the best so we’ll pick them anyway.  

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Western Province 2012 Currie Cup Champions

11 years of finals and disappointment, every year waiting and hoping maybe this year we will win it, always believing we can do it, always having the players but unable to prove themselves. This year was different however, facing the Sharks in Durban again after an embarrassing performance in 2010. The Sharks were undoubtedly the form team of the season finishing top of the log and winning their semi-final convincingly. It would not be easy for Western Province as they had many injuries this year and the team was full of youngsters most of whom could have played in the u21 final. Most of the experts gave Province a 25% chance of winning last night. Most of the country even believed this, except nobody told the Province team that. From the first kick off you could see the fire and passion Province played with, hitting the Sharks line with venom and tackling with aggression. They showed a will to win that I haven’t seen in 11 years. A lot was spoken before the game about Patrick Lambie and his influence on the game and his aspiration to make the Springbok fly half jersey his own. He did have a good game and was as dangerous as ever but he was no match for Province fly half Demetri Catrakilis who controlled the play superbly giving his back line great go forward ball as well as putting Juan De Jongh through the gap with an inside ball which put him under the posts after handing off Keegan Daniel and Stepping Lwazi Mvovo. He did also slot 2 drop goals to put the game out of reach, one of them wit the left foot.

 

The confidence with which the young team played was great, fighting to the very end and keeping cool under severe pressure from a superb Sharks team. You cold have picked the man of the match from any of the 15 players that took the field, Eben Etsebeth was outstanding, stealing lineout ball, tackling like an animal and carrying the ball up, he is an outstanding player and my pick for player of the year. Demetri Catrakilis definitely put up his hand and maybe even caught the eye of Bok coach Heyneke Meyer and if not well then he must be blind. Another player who should be on the Bok coach’s radar should be the stand in Captain Deon Fourie, a hooker who played most of the season on the side of the scrum and was outstanding. Juan De Jongh could be the answer at outside centre for Meyer as he adds that X-factor as well as tackling above his weight. They way they defended together and the belief with which they played was truly amazing, they may not have had the best season but they came good when it matters. Naas Botha said before the game, “there are no favourites in a final, just 80 minutes and the team that is best on the day will win”. Western Province was the best team on the day and deserved Champions. All the talk before the game about them being chokers and the monkey on their back is now gone and hopefully they can use this to go on to win Super Rugby.

 

The only downside to the game was the way in which the game was officiated, Nick Mallet said before the game that 95% percent of the 50/50 calls would go the way of the home team, this was definitely the case as the ref made many bad calls for example Province player Joe Pietersen kicked the ball with his foot and Ref Jaco Payper gave a knock on. Mistakes like this make the refs look amateur, this is not the only case of poor decisions and something need s to be done on a big scale in order to improve the officiating of the game.

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South Africans dominating CLT20

So we’ll have at least one South African team in this year’s Champions league twenty20 after the Highveld Lions thumped the Delhi Daredevils by 22 runs last night in Durban. They had a solid performance and as they have done so far in the competition their players stood up when necessary. Neil Mackenzie and Gulam Bodi with the bat scoring 46 not out and 50 respectively to bring the Lions to 139 for 5. Chris Morris stood up with the ball who took 2 wickets for 7 runs as well as Aaron Phangiso 2 wickets for 18 runs and has been the stand out bowler of the competition picking up 10 wickets and having an incredible economy rate. The lions have had a great tournament so far picking up the scalps of all 3 IPL teams, this poses the question, why are there 3 Indian teams and only 2 teams from every other country? This seems unfair and so proven to be unjust as none of their teams have mad the finals and only 1 team made the semi-final. It would seem as though they are stacking the odds so as to give the IPL teams a better chance of winning and they have done so the last two tournaments. It would safe to say since all of the sponsors and organizers are Indian that they would be able to field almost twice as many teams as any other nation. Well even so they have had a poor tournament with years final set to either be an all South African affair or an Australian South African derby. We will find out who the Lions will face on Sunday when the Titans take on the Sydney Sixers today.

Repeat of 2010?

So it’s going to be a repeat of the 2010 Currie cup final when Western Province take on the Sharks in Durban this Coming Saturday. Some are already picking the Sharks for a repeat of their thrashing of WP again with their recent run of form. With Patrick Lambie and most of their Boks back they look to take the Currie Cup once again. Everything seems to be in their favor but what WP supporters will tell you is that we want it too bad for us to lose again. Well we will have to see what happens on the day, a lot of factors will come into account when the 2 teams meet. The domination of Lambie and the ability of the Province team to shut him down, the domination of the forwards but most importantly who wants it the most. Province have been without a trophy for many seasons and its about time they win something, the fire should be there but they need to show up on the day and perform if they want to have any chance of taking it this year.  

Kings to prove themselves worthy of Super rugby

So the Southern Kings will play the Cheetahs in a promotion-relegation game tonight. Is this fair? Yes by all means it is fair; the Kings have earned the right to fight for a place in the Premier division next year. They won their division convincingly and were unbeaten in fact and have every right to compete for position unlike their entry into Super Rugby. If they beat the Cheetahs and gain entry into the Premier division and do well next year then and only then have they earned the right to play Super rugby. I’m interested to see how the next 2 games play out as they play both home and away. The Cheetahs playing to save pride and to save a lot of jobs and sponsorships will have the clear advantage because they will simply play their style of rugby and the Kings will have to keep up. However the Kings have just as much to lay for as they need to prove to everyone that they belong at the top with the big boys. They will come out guns blazing because they have nothing to lose and everything to gain where as the Cheetahs have everything to lose. It should be an interesting night in Bloemfontein.

Doping in other sports?

Following the recent doping scandal post that I wrote about Lance Armstrong I thought long and hard about other sports and wondered if there was doping in those sports too. Cycling is synonymous with doping, you always hear stories of cyclists being banned for doping etc. and it’s understandable as cycling is a grueling sport and the cyclists put their bodies through weeks of mountains and extreme conditions. I mean riding in excess of 150 to 200km a day for 3 weeks is insane and the do it all the time, it’s no wonder they resort to doping. Is this an excuse? Not at all, even though cycling is extremely taxing on the body, there is no excuse for doping under any circumstance. This leads me to my first question, is there doping happening in other sports. Well we know that doping also occurs in swimming, running and certain athletic events. But what about the main stream sports like soccer, rugby and cricket? The 2003 ICC Cricket World cup could be an indication that there might be, news came in that Shane Warne Australia’s prolific leg spinner pulled out of the World Cup as he tested positive to a banned substance and was banned from cricket for twelve months, he of course denied it and said he had no idea what he was taking. This may have been the case but as with so many athletes who are caught always deny that they were doping. My focus falls to rugby, players are getting bigger and bigger, recently watching the u20 junior world champs and just looking at how big they were, 19 years old and weighing 120 kilos and it’s not just one or two guys its most of them and they don’t look 19, they look like old men with beards. This seems a little strange to me, but of course I’m not accusing anyone of anything, I’m just saying it’s a little shifty. I’ve always heard stories of top SA schools forcing their rugby players to take steroids and always just thought it was talk until I was speaking to friends who told me that a friend of theirs who was at a top school was forced to take steroids and refused and is now at a different school. This disturbed me highly that coaches and staff were doing this to their players and it just reinforces the win at all costs mentality that people have adopted. These are however just stories that I’ve heard, I don’t claim them as truth but where there’s smoke there’s usually fire.

Armstrong doping?

Lance Armstrong and doping, two words you would never put in a sentence before now. The seven time Tour de France winner has come under scrutiny after the US anti-doping agency accused Armstrong and his former US postal team of running "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen". 11 of Armstrong’s former team mates have given evidence against the double cancer survivor, saying that he took banned substances and enforced a doping culture within the team. Armstrong has been an inspiration to so many, beating cancer twice as well as winning the Tour de France seven times. All of that seems to count for nothing when you hear all of this. There is however no proof that any of this is actually true but with 6 of his former team mates admitting to doping and being suspended for 6 months, this doesn’t do well for his case. Livestrong the cancer charity that Armstrong started have distanced themselves from the American saying that he is no longer a part of the organization to avoid bad press, shouldn’t they stand behind them like he stood behind them all this time cause they wouldn’t be where they are without him.

Having written numerous books inspiring millions with his story the 7 time Tour winner will come under heavy fire from all sides, especially from fans who believed him to be the greatest cyclist of all time. These stories of triumph and victory seem however to be a bunch of elaborate lies. Winning at all costs seems to be the name of the game in professional sport these days and then tell stories about how you cheated to inspire millions. Whether they will decide to strip Armstrong of his 7 titles is still undecided, all I know is that he will go from being the greatest cyclist of all time to being a lying phony in 0.2 seconds. All the good work he did for cancer will count for nill as his credibility is worthless. Very disappointing but I guess not everything is as it seems. We will find out what will happens in the coming days and personally am very interested to see how he responds.   

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Springboks back for Currie Cup

The final round robin stage of this year’s Currie cup competition takes place this weekend. This year’s competition has been the closest it’s been for years, still not knowing who will finish top, bottom or anywhere between. It has been full of injuries, big upsets and a lack of consistency from any team. It has however given younger players a chance to put their hand up and show what they can do at the highest level. That is about to change though, with the Rugby Championship now finished the Springboks will be returning to their respective franchises. The players who have played the whole season and taken their team to the position it’s in will have to step aside. Now some would say that this is fair, playing the strongest players possible, now I partially agree with this as you always want to put out your strongest team. Is it fair for the players who have played the whole year? A player like Siya Ntubeni who has sat on the bench for most of his Stormers career got the chance to start at hooker for Western Province this season and took the opportunity with both hands racking up a few man of the match awards and being one of the stand out players. He will have to step aside for returning Tiaan Liebenberg, this may be the best decision for the team but is it the best decision for the players. He will now revert to the bench and not get as much game time as he’s been getting and not getting the experience he should. The other side of the coin is relegation, if you don’t field your strongest team you might find yourself in the bottom position and fighting for a place to stay in the competition next year. So I guess you have to choose what is best for the overall team and the future of the competition. Most of the players wouldn’t mind as they would know it’s for the best but I’m sure they would still be disappointed in having to step aside. They can be proud however as they played their part and got the team to where it needed to be.

The relegation of the Lions from Super rugby seems to be benefitting the Stormers the most as four players will be signing for the union including Pat Cilliers, Michael Rhodes, Elton Jantjies and Jaco Taute. They may be killing the Lions rugby union by excluding them from Super rugby but they’re definitely boosting the Stormers. This may in fact be even worse for the newly promoted Kings as they will now face even stronger opponents. The Stormers will have an almost 100% Springbok team if they keep all they’re players and they’re fit to play. So much for developing the Kings.

I'm back

I’ve been away for a while but I’m back and with so many things to share with you. So many things have happened in my absence, too many for me to mention. Most notably the Springboks beat Australia and were then beaten by New-Zealand. The Currie cup is heating up as it moves into the final round of competition before the semi’s. Liverpool is still on an up and down season and has yet to find consistency which has eluded them the past few seasons. A documentary “Being Liverpool” was aired last Friday and it gives you a first time behind the scenes look at how a big club operates. How the players live and train. A quote from one of the supporters “Liverpool is our religion and Anfield is our place of worship, with every religion comes faith and faith can move mountains. That really spoke to me as I am a staunch Liverpool supporter and the documentary really is good and I advise everyone to watch it even if you’re not a supporter of Liverpool. That quote just gives you an idea as to what it means to their supporters and the documentary shows that. But other than that I’m back and will be blogging as usual again.