Heartening to see!
July 25, 2012 in Uncategorized
The British and Irish Lions tour of 2009 left a somewhat bad taste in my mouth. After all the off field accusations and the on field shenanigans I thought that the professional game has finally caught up with us and it wont be long until Quade Cooper tells Bismark exactly what he wants to do with his sister (Does the Dup Brothers even have a sister) and Bismark retaliates by smacking him with his head. (The Zidane incident is one of the saddest moments in sport that I have seen ever)
It seemed that the camaraderie of the old days is finally behind us. Then the English came along this year and, although I didn’t read many reports of inter team interaction, there was no bad blood on and off the field. I thought that it is at least a step in the right direction.
The Bulls/Crusaders match earlier the season was followed with a lot of badmouthing afterwards with the Bulls accusing the ‘Saders of eye gouching and the Crusaders demanding an apology. I feared that this will lead to a few incidents on Saturday, but there were none of the sort. And the way the ‘Saders’ management and some of the players have treated Bijorn Basson while he has to remain in hospital in New Zealand is really heartening to hear.
It is reported that he was visited regularly by them, some even brought him some rugby magazines and he will not be staying in a hotel for the five days of observation, but he’ll be received at the Crasaders’ liaison official’s home.
Good on you, ‘Saders.
Cheers!!!
Bloues
PS – It was disappointing to see so many empty seats on Saturday. It is reported that the Canterbariens’ pockets are still recovering from last year’s earthquake. Not nice seeing that the Crusaders had to pick up the Bulls’ NZ$125000 bill for traveling to NZ as well as their accommodation. Ouch!!!
The info in this post is taken partly from Planet-Rugby’s Loosepass column and seen on Tank Lanning’s Tweets.
Met uysh said on July 25, 2012
Good sportsmanship by the Saders. I recall the B&I Tour…even wrote a very nasty post about it back then! I think it was around that time when Kitchener stuck his ugle head out as well….
gertbloues said on July 25, 2012
I wonder where that head is now? I expected to read something from him again after a Brit became the first one in ages to win the Tour de France.
guntz27 said on July 25, 2012
Well done to the Saders!
I think Kitch hated the new platform and stopped blogging!
gertbloues said on July 25, 2012
That’s what he said on his page. Maybe he was hoping to see a lot of:”Oh no Kitch. Please stay…”
Haha
I do miss him though. Not nearly as fun bragging about the cricket if he doesn’t respond.
guntz27 said on July 25, 2012
Maybe you should send him a message
powa said on July 25, 2012
Kitch won’t post here because his IP address will become known and a lot of the incidents between Bulls and Saders are all media hype. They often go for sensationalistic articles in order to sell newspapers. Whether it’s true or not.
gertbloues said on July 25, 2012
At least the Bulls’ reaction to Blackadder demanding an apology was done through their PR channel and nothing came from it any further.
The Crusaders visiting Bjorn is true though. Good PR on not. I think being in a hospital on the other side of the world with only your team doctor to support you can be lonely, so a nice gesture from the Crusaders.