Andy Capostagno RUGBY
It was only a matter of time, really. South African rugby is in crisis, let’s find a scapegoat and ask Louis Luyt, if he’s not doing anything important, whether he would like to ride to the rescue. Things have been entirely too stable in the corridors of power, it’s time for the lunatics to take over the asylum. Again. Hands up if you’d heard of Fanie Vermaak, the chairman of the Mpumalanga Rugby Union, before this week.
Diversionary tactics are good. Throw a few rubber fish at the executive of the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) and maybe we can forget that the actual game of rugby, as it is played on these shores, is going to Hell in a canoe with an outboard motor. Never mind the players, the coaches, the blinkered attitudes, in Vermaak’s considered opinion “our rugby is not in a good state … because (Rian) Oberholzer and a select few others have all the power.”
Really? Have you ever heard anything more ridiculous? Sorry, of course you have, this is South African rugby we’re talking about, an entity that one day may attempt to take out copyright on the very word ridiculous. Anyway, it appears that Vermaak wishes to complain about the fact that the (democratically elected) executive of Sarfu make all the decisions, and that it would all work much better if the presidents of all 14 provincial unions sat on that committee.
“I am not saying Oberholzer is not competent at doing his job, but he currently has too much power. He must accept that he works for Sarfu – and the 14 provinces make up Sarfu.” Who was it said a camel is a horse designed by a committee? No matter, John le Carr encapsulated the problem when he wrote, “A committee is a creature with four back legs.”
It’s easy to imagine how this all came about. A few dops under the belt and cries of, “Personally, I believe our rugby needs people like Doc Luyt. After all, he was the genius behind the Sanzar deal.”
That’s a genuine Vermaak quote by the way. Incidentally, the genius behind the Sanzar deal sold the rights to southern hemisphere rugby to Rupert Murdoch for $50-million a year for a decade.
At the time, Supersport’s Russell MacMillan went on record to say that a 10-year deal was madness and that in 2005 we would all look back and wonder what madness had caused the three unions to sell their product so cheaply.
Half-way through the contract Sarfu is not complaining, because the rand is worth half of what it was to the dollar in 1995, but it is a different story in Australia and New Zealand. Which may be why the Australian Rugby Union and New Zealand Rugby Football Union have concentrated on making the rugby their teams play attractive to the public, instead of taking out their frustrations on head office.
And what rugby those teams are playing at the moment. The Crusaders/Highlanders clash in Christ-church last week was a contender for best Super 12 match yet, featuring the champion Crusaders cruising to a 39-12 lead five minutes into the second half, only to spend the rest of the match chasing shadows as the Highlanders got it back to 36-42 before the final whistle.
Pita Alatini’s last-minute try was worth two points to the Highlanders, one for a fourth try, another for finishing within seven points of the winners. It was in rather spectacular contrast to the fare served up later in the day in Pretoria, where the Bulls and Sharks were reduced to looking for penalties to break the 14- all deadlock, because neither could control the ball long enough or well enough to even work the space for a drop goal, never mind a try.
This week the Highlanders take on the Brumbies in Canberra. After that encounter we will know more about whether the Brumbies are really 50 points better than the opposition when they play at home.
Cats coach Laurie Mains said in the aftermath of his team’s 64-0 defeat at Bruce stadium that nothing had prepared him forp
such an abject performance by his team.
But there is really no shame in losing, even by an unacceptable margin, to a team as good as the Brumbies. What Mains and South African rugby has to face up to now is the spectre of mediocrity. This week the Sharks meet the Cats in Durban. Two short years ago we would have spent a week licking our lips at the prospect, but the experience of watching South African sides play each other in this year’s Super 12 has dulled the appetite more than somewhat.
Can we expect a thrill-a-minute try- fest, or something as exciting as watching a coffin warp? Make up your own mind. Personally I believe that a game which is more concerned with killing the messenger than listening to the message gets the rugby it deserves.
For match reports on the whistle and Andy Capostagno’s Monday morning assessment of all the weekend’s Super 12 action, see www.mg.co.za/sport