The Great Escape!

In my preceding scribble I refered to the "momentous miracle" that any Bok victory has become these days, given the bunch of holistic assholes who control the game in this country...well, those comments were hardly posted or a 20-year old genius from the plains of the Free State stepped up and grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat...another momentous (and memorable) miracle!

But then it happens...the crowning stuff-up of the afternoon: who gets the Man of the Match(MOM) Award? Frans Steyn?...who has just saved the Boks' (and Jakes') ass? Or maybe Jean de Villiers?... for cutting the Aussie-backline in half more than once? Or, what about Ruan Pienaar?...whose snappy go-forward service kick-started the Bok-engine and provided vital momentum through-out the Test? Or Bakkies Botha, just for being Bakkies...with great affect?

In fact, the one bloke who received the most ball, and did the least with it got the MOM. After about the six hundred and fifty fourth time that Schalk Burger received the ball, and ceremoniously fell to the ground WITHOUT PASSING THE BLOODY BALL, to any array of players on either side of him, I decided to watch the clock to see if it was ever going to happen...and then the unthinkable did eventually happen... in the 76th minute Schalk Burger actually passed the ball, which prompted a mate of mine to comment "You see, I told you he was improving!"

Now, the way Schalk played it was clear that he was doing so under strict instructions, which, for him personally, are mitigating circumstances, but if this performance(instructions?) gets repeated vs the All Blacks then Dan Carter is going to get more place-kicking practice in one afternoon than in the entire previous Tri-Nations! Forget the tries, Dan will simply kick us to pieces! Imagine every time Schalk touches the ball he'll be engulfed by at least three(big, heavy, and strong) All Blacks, one of whom will be Richie McCaw, with the inevitable penalty ensuing. If we do manage to retain possession it will have been after a dodgy contest for the ball on the ground(which was ours to begin with), only to get it back slowed down, and then repeating the whole arduous process all over again, with Richie&Co waiting to pounce, once more!

Come on Jake, Gert, et al ... is this the best you can come up with? No wonder we only managed one try despite an abundance of good possession. Yes, the Aussie defence was incredible, and Yes, the ref was a total fart-ass, but if your game-plan is going to be so predictable, ineffectual, and one-dimensional, then rather send the blokes onto the field with the simple instruction of "Go for it, boys, play rugby, and enjoy yourselves!" That's my game-plan, anyway...

Finally, a very interesting snippet from the media: Danie Rossouw and Bakkies Botha were teammates before... in Primary School...Danie played fly-half and Bakkies was his scrumhalf! Please, everyone, don't tell Jake!!!

But this isn't half as interesting as the bit that alleges that Diana Spencer's biological dad was in fact none other than 'playboy tycoon', the late Sir James Goldsmith! (Ol Jimmy was, after all, known to have investigated virtually every skirt in Britain, and beyond.)

Besides, Diana and Jemima(Jimmy's undisputed daughter) do look frightfully alike!