RUGBY: Jon Swift
IT is a measure of the importance of the position that=20 the flyhalf is the most exposed and often most=20 criticised of players in the game of rugby.
Just how the flyhalf slots into the complex 15-part=20 puzzle which makes up a successful team is a poser which=20 faces every coach at whatever level and is the fuel for=20 interminable pre-match and post-result debates among the=20 game’s followers.
Certainly, four flyhalves on show in the Currie Cup this=20 weekend – and one who will be on the sidelines – add=20 fuel to that fire.
Interestingly enough, it is from among the four teams=20 these flyhalves represent – Transvaal, Natal, Western=20 Province and Northerns – that the finalists in this=20 season’s competition will surely come.
When Western Province run out against Northern=20 Transvaal at Loftus Versfled tomorrow, both Joel=20 Stransky and Lance Sherrell have team and personal=20 points to make.
Stransky, as the reigning South African pivot and the=20 drop goal hero of this country’s World Cup triumph, was=20 kept out of the tour to New Zealand by Sherrell. It was=20 a low point of Stransky’s career. After having been=20 snubbed by Natal and revitalising his game by moving to=20 Western Province, he found himself ignored by the=20 national selectors. It is to his undying credit that he=20 fought back so hard and so well to claim back his green=20 and gold jersey.
But if that tour marked a nadir for Stransky, it=20 represented a pinnacle for Sherrell, ironically the=20 pivot who had performed so well for Natal in Stransky’s=20 earlier absences on international duty. Sherrell moved=20 to Pretoria and gained a new lease of life behind the=20 feared Blue Bulls pack.
But then Sherrell got what is called euphemistically=20 called the trekpas, and lingered in the doldrums after a=20 lacklustre tour as Northerns used flyhalf after flyhalf=20 before finally coming back to Sherrell two games ago.
His return to provincial rugby has added a new dimension=20 and urgency to Northerns,
The same urgency came into the equation with the=20 premature departure of Jannie de Beer 14 minutes into=20 the second half of Transvaal’s match against Free State=20 at Ellis Park last weekend.
Hennie le Roux, gratefully and emphatically, took over=20 and turned the game around with some of the slickest=20 flyhalf play – including a superb 87th minute solo try -=20 seen for years.
In doing so, he made something of a nonsense of the=20 insistence by the provincial and national selectors that=20 Le Roux turn out at centre. This thinking has been=20 reversed for the Durban match and Le Roux starts in his=20 rightful slot.
At this juncture, it is of more than passing interest to=20 note that the man who opposes Le Roux for Natal on=20 Saturday is another test flyhalf, Underberg farmer Henry=20 Honiball. Honiball replaces Luke Smith – surely a fine=20 investment for the future – and, should he show the form=20 he is capable of, could come back strongly into the=20 running for a test place.
Pienaar’s played an honourable game
Murdoch and Packer have sparked an ugly maul over money,=20 but have Francois Pienaar and Co really done anything=20
RUGBY: Jon Swift
CAN anyone truly say that Francois Pienaar and all the=20 other players have not acted honourably throughout the=20 rigours of the World Cup campaign and the subsequent=20 eruption of a pay-for-play furore rapidly approaching=20 the status of fiasco?
It is one of those questions which will continue to=20 engender fierce debate long after the parties involved=20 have come to whatever terms they finally decide on.
But it is appropriate at this point to examine some of=20 the facts as they seem to appear amid the smokescreens=20 of a flat refusal by the South African Rugby Football=20 Union to disclose any of the details of the terms=20 offered to the players.
Questioned on this aspect, SARFU chief executive Edward=20 Griffiths had an immediate answer “These are private,”=20 he said. “You wouldn’t disclose details of your salary=20 would you?”
It’s a logical response, but a possibly damning one in=20 the circumstances. For in this, Griffiths tacitly=20 admitted that amateur sportsmen are indeed being paid by=20 a constitutionally amateur union in contravention of the=20 laws of the international body which rules both parties.
You are left to judge the honour in this for yourselves.
What Pienaar and all the other players who have signed=20 anything — be it a contract, a letter of intent or any=20 other form of agreement — with media mogul Kerry Packer=20 have done is to try and improve the lot of the players.
With the International Rugby Board continuing to dither=20 on the issue of professionalism before their meeting in=20 Paris from August 24-26, both SARFU and the players have=20 been caught between the iconoclastic rock of the=20 ancients who administer the game and the hard place of=20 having to live in an increasingly money conscious=20
Few can argue that Pienaar and the rest did not give=20 their all in the quest to bring the William Web Ellis=20 trophy to this country.=20
There was no holding back because they were not getting=20 the benefits other players on similar world stages might=20 expect to receive. There was no dishonour in this.
Neither can anyone truly point a finger at Pienaar for=20 negotiating an agent’s fee of around R1-million for=20 getting the players’ signatures for Packer’s proposed=20 world series.
Not when he has taken no money as yet — “Not even=20 expenses,” says the Springbok captain.
Not when there has been no disclosure of what financial=20 gain there could be for the directors of SANZAR – the=20 offshore company formed to handle the R2-billion offered=20 by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation for broadcast=20 rights over the next 10 years.
And certainly not when the players were given no=20 indication that any such deal was in the offing before=20 it was announced.
Quite simply put, Murdoch signed the southern hemisphere=20 unions, Packer bypassed the middle men and went right to=20 the heart of the game, signing up the people who really=20 count .. .the players.
For these players, it could not have been an easy=20 decision despite the supposedly huge amounts of money.=20
Much has been made of the agonies Transvaal flanker Ian=20 Macdonald has gone through over the disclosure that he=20 had a large involvement in the Packer signings.
The failure by SARFU to keep the players informed=20 applies just as equally to Macdonald. And few can=20 possibly brand him a man without principles. Those=20 principles were strong enough for him to take the step=20 of refusing to play on Sundays because of his religious=20
It was a stand that effectively ruled Macdonald out of=20 World Cup contention as it did fellow believer Michael=20 Jones for the All Blacks.
Clearly, these are not men without principles. Neither=20 are they serfs. They are intelligent young men using the=20 talents they have been given to the very best of their=20 abilities in the short space of time they have at the=20
And as such, the players deserve both any monetary=20 rewards available … and the respect of all those=20 involved in the game of rugby.=20
Any less than this,especially in the form of a witch- hunt against individuals, would indeed be dishonourable.