Tag: rugby

Bye Bye Bakkies…

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People have a tendency to look at people’s careers through rose-tinted spectacles upon their retirement.

It’s ok though, I don’t struggle with that sort of thing:

bakkies

I was at Newlands for the 2010 dangerous play incident, when 120kg Bakkies cleared his 75kg Springbok teammate Gio Aplon out of a ruck, shoulder first. [Video]

Because of his suspension for that incident, Bakkies fans had to wait a full 7 weeks for his next misdemeanor – this, a full 29 seconds into the Tri-Nations game against New Zealand:

(Which prompted this rant from JD Bryce.)

When we’re being regularly reminded how sports stars must act as role models, I can’t say that Bakkies’ retirement will be a big loss to rugby. Less of that sort of example, please.

Great player? Perhaps.
Thug? Most certainly.

And it’s that latter category that I  and many others will remember him for.

Have you ever got so drunk…

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…that you missed the team flight to South America?

“On Saturday night, whilst out for an informal dinner in Auckland, I made a poor decision regarding the limits of my alcohol intake.
This has resulted in the unacceptable action of me being absent from All Blacks assembly on Sunday morning and thus missing the team flight to Argentina.”

Still, that line: “I made a poor decision regarding the limits of my alcohol intake”?
That’s the best way of saying “I got really pissed” that I’ve heard in a while. Maybe it could be adapted to other situations as well:

“In the early hours of Thursday morning, whilst in my Pretoria home, I made a poor decision regarding the limits of my criminal responsibility.”

or:

“Since 2009, whilst being President of the Republic of South Africa, I repeatedly made poor decisions regarding the limits of my personal architectural and construction budget.”

But still – how does that happen? No, not the Nkandla thing. How does an international rugby player – or indeed even an international rugby team not have some sort of fail safe backup plan for getting their players to the airport on time? No, they shouldn’t need one, but as this incident proves, they obviously do need one.

Still, with the All Blacks having suspended Aaron Cruden (for it was he) for two games, Argentina must really be fancying their chances against the world champions now. *cough*
Presumably, they’ve already got their “poor decision regarding the limits of their rugby playing abilities” statement ready in case they don’t manage a win in La Plata on Saturday.

I can’t feel my fingers

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The weekend in Cape Town kicked off with heavy rain from about 3am this morning (rather than 3am this afternoon, which makes no sense at all, obviously. My point is that it was 3am this morning, rather than any other morning).

It’s not like this wasn’t expected. One of the (many) good things about living here is that the weather is quite predictable. Stuck on the corner of Africa with literally thousands of miles of ocean almost surrounding us, it’s fairly easy to see what’s coming and warn us about it. And warned we were:

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Wind, rain, swell – lots of each of them, which surely means a trip out with the camera tomorrow.

Currently, it’s 10.2C and the pressure is 997mb. The pool is overflowing and there are puddles all over my lawn. And with the wind increasing and the pressure still dropping, it seems like the worst is yet to come.

In the midst of all this, I have prepped with homemade soup, cottage pie, pasta “thing” and home-baked fresh bread. Looking good, then.
And then we’re off to Newlands to watch the rugby. Memories of the sleet at Italy v Paraguay in 2010 spring to mind.
I’d rather be in the stands than on the field, but right now, I’d rather just watch it on TV and enjoy my soup.