The Ups and Downs...

Fairly interesting things going on at present I am not too sure where to begin.

Firstly, PDV: You have to be impressed with Springbok coach Pieter De Villiers! Initially he just showed massive insight to stick with Jake White's team before the historic House of Pain sneak win over the weekend and then take the praise for the victory. After the win Big Brother phoned me and bet R1 trillion zim dollars on the Monday headlines praising PDV for the win. He is a clever one that Big Brother and I am out of a loaf of bread. However, even after the epic win that PDV single handedly orchaestrated he showed further humility in admitting today the biggest problem with SA rugby right now. Go look got it, back page of the Cape Times, it's there. No not the struggle to get a hooker to play two consecutive matches, no not the 'utter partiality' of SANZAR disciplinary comittees but rather, "our biggest problem is Adi Jacobs..." First bit of sense the man has spoken. Although admittedly I might be paraphrasing him away from his context, but you would agree he should have stopped there...

Leaving the whole world blind..?

USS Bismarck: Staying on the back of the rugby camel and more specifically the utter bias against the Springboks. SA is up in arms saying the remnants of a Carisbrook win has turned to a sour taste in the mouths of SA supporters after Bismarck Du Plesseis was 'harshly' meted out a 3 week ban for eye gouge an opponent. Interesting situation this. The basis of the 'unbelievable bias' argument is that Brad Thorn was only given a one match ban for picking up and dropping captain John Smit in the 5th minute of the first test in Wellington.

We need to remain mindful of a few points here. The two incidents are separate and although you would rightfully expect consistency between sentences from the SANZAR disciplinary committee you must admit that two wrongs don't make a right. So if Thorn's punishment was too lenient, it won't be fixed by giving the next guilty player the same leniency. This however, assume Thorn's punishment was too lenient. Which of course it wasn't. It wasn't a spear tackle by definition. Fact. Smit landed on his back, not in a vertical position. And you can't try trump up the charge by saying it caused Smit a groin injury and ruled him out of the rest of the competition because he was only subbed in the 37th minute. 32minutes on a torn groin? Not possible. It was probably going backward at scrum time that ruined his groin.

(not) Harsh, but fair...

Now I am not saying Thorn should recieve a medal for showing super human strength in being able to lift SA's plump hooker off the ground. I do agree that it was unsporting behaviour and a one match ban suited the occassion. Moreover, lets not forget that without Thorn the All Blacks were forced to play novice lock Anthony Boric (2nd test) against the most formidable tight five in the world with a second row test cap accumulation of 77 or something. And then when Ali Williams went off the All Blacks lost all competitiveness as they had to replace him with debutant Kevin O'Neill. You can't beat experience. The All Blacks suffered because of that.

Reverting now to Bismarck's sentence. Firstly don't drum it up as 3 weeks as they only play 1 games in 3 weeks so it is the same as Thorns in affect. And then secondly eye gouging is tantamount to murder on a rugby field. It would be pleasing if you remembered that the last test player to get sentenced for it was that Bergamasco Italian gangster that eye poked Welsh fullback Lee Byrne. Bergamasco got 13 weeks. Thirteen? That is the entire super 14.

I am confident, dehydrated and have something white on my nose...

Thirdly: The Golden Triangle - The Pakistanian pace bowler Mohamed Asif has reported failed a drug test during the Indian Premium League (IPL) 20 Twenty competition held from April to June. His lawyers have sent the sample for a second test to confirm the result, citing it as an impossible outcome. Now we are the first pople to recognise the right to innocence until proven guilty but come now Mo, lets be a little honest here. You are currently sitting in a detention cell in Dubai for being caught in possession of Opium at Dubai International Airport. Good luck with that B sample.

And lastly, Deathgate: I am not going to get to deep in this but in a 25 minute car trip I was brutally subjected to listening to a national phone in conversation centering on the recent shooting of a hippo that has being living it up way to close to suburbia up in Durban. Reportedly not content with the 8 to 6 hipponess of having to ruffle ears and blink repeatedly and passing tourists to the St Lucia wetlands, the large pachyderm packed up shop and road tripped it down to Durban for the week. Apparently he was heading to the wave pool at Ushaka Marine World and was going to drop a few guineas at the July on his way.

13th race..?

As it goes with roadtrips to the July things went pear shaped for the sea cow. Alleged he steam rolled a Vermeulen resident and this gave pursuing authorities to cast aside an interdict obtained by an animal activist group not to shoot him and they did. Dead hippo.

My point. People were phoning in like it was a telkom complainants hotline expressing their ardent views pertaining to the horrid murder of a poor innocent beast that was only doing what was natural to it. This morning a proud South African policeman Lukas Nell was gunned down by a suspected criminal (now definitely a criminal) whom he was pursuing in Tamboerskloof. South Africa's radio listeners are up in arms about a hippo, but nothing gets said about murdered policeman. That can't be right..!

Oh and Cape Town was just voted the 3rd city in the world to visit by US travel magazine, Travel & Leisure's 2008 Worlds Best Survey. 1 and 2 were Bangkok and Buenos Aires respectively. Just so you know...