Mickeynelster

A while ago on Sport24 Bloues wrote post about School Rugby and the disgust he had at how some of the parents behaved next to the field.

A week or so later we read and we saw a coach in Gauteng behaving very badly towards a Match Official.

This made me think: What is happening at school level and how did rugby develop since I last played the game?

I rewind 24 Years ago when I played my first rugby game for Hoerskool Louw Wepener, a little town 3km away from the Lesotho Border and one of the coldest places in the Oranje Vrystaat. I remember not having any water early mornings because the pipes were frozen.

So, as a U/9 player, full 15 Players I might add, none of this mini rugby till you get to U/11 type crap and playing the whole field and not just halve, I remember that we had the task of playing the first game of the day at 08h00.

Frost was as thick as a blanket. We were called the ”pienk voete”. I could never understand why we had to play first without boots and the 1st Team, with their boots get to play at 12h30. Bloody unfair!!!

Anyway, back to the topic. Parents never behaved like hooligans (come on man, we aren’t Poms) and neither did coaches try to intimidate ref. Mostly because the Refs were teachers I suspect.

Why are we seeing this sort of behaviour then 24 years later? Was I lucky to grow up in a time when sport wasn’t as competitive or was it just because we lived in the Vrystaat? Should the term ”being laid back” be associated with Vrystaters instead of Cape Townians? Or was this sort of behaviour evident in big cities even back then?

The word Professionalism is the word that changed it all. All of a sudden players are being bought, even at school level because the money is good.

Parents and players are getting violent because the Ref made a bad call against him and that might ruin his chances of being spotted by a bigger better school or province and the possibility of a big pay check.

Would I behave the same way as these parents one day when my son plays rugby? I hope not.

Cheers vir Eers

http://blogs.24.com/members/mickeynelster/

Whilst everybody is going on about the Kings/Lions debacle and are also very much concentrating on the Incoming Tests as well as the last few games of Super Rugby, I am looking forward to what lies beyond all this.

I am particularly interested in the Lions Currie Cup campaign.

Having seen the Springbok Squad and yes I know it needs to be trimmed down still, you note that not many Lions players are included. The same could be said about the Cheetahs but I am concentrating on the Lions for now.

Are they favourites along with the Cheetahs and maybe Province (after the Vodacom Cup) to defend their title? I think they might!

Yes, the Bulls, Stormers and Sharks have almost all their players playing for the Boks and Yes one can argue that that is the reason the Lions won the Currie Cup last season, but, their name is on the Cup and in 10 years’ time nobody would ask how they won it.

I hope they win it again this year just to show SARU and their cronies what idiots they are and give them a BIG middle finger.

Yeahhhhhh Baby.Welcome back son.

Apologies if this was written by someone else before!

So far the Kings are the most talked about Rugby Team in South Africa and in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s mostly about everyone’s disapproval of how they are simply allowed into Super Rugby. It made me think of a solution, not that it would make a difference to the thought processes of SARU.

90% of Bloggers have agreed that a relegation match between the Kings and bottom side should be the way to go instead of them just being granted a free pass. Well, this is not going to happen.

Lets then look to the future:

Anyone that watches football will know that they all have relegation systems where 2 or 3 teams get relegated from a division and the top 2 or 3 teams from the lower division gets promoted. Why can’t we do the same in Super rugby? Hear me out!

At the end of each Super rugby tournament the bottom 2 teams should be relegated, regardless the Nation. If you are bottom, you get relegated, finish and klaar!!

Who gets promoted then?

We have the Vodacom Cup. I say we scrap that. The 3 nations, AUS, SA, NZ each enter 3 or 4 sides into a Super B competition and the top 2 sides gets promotion. Easy as that.

If we for some reason have 2 teams at the bottom, well then unfortunately both get relegated, the same goes for the other nations.

I think it’s fair, what do you think?

Have a great sporting weekend!

Currently the South African Disabled Golf Tournament is being held at the Langebaan Country Club. It started yesterday and will continue till Friday.

The reason why I write about is because firstly, golf is close to my heart and secondly, disabled golf is even closer to my heart. This is not because I am disabled, but because once a month a join these golfers for 18 holes.

The first time I was introduced to this format of the game was back in 2002 at my home course Fancourt and more specifically Bramble Hill. Bramble hill has since been closed but that is beside the point. Strolling up to the first tee was an amputee with just one arm named Eugene Vorster. I thought to myself, Geezzzzzzzz, this is going to be a long day.

He teed off, straight down the middle over 200m with one arm. He didnt miss a putt, he chipped like a pro. To make a long story short, I got a golfing lesson of note and found out that Eugene plays off a 6 handicap. Since then, 10 years later, I have learnt to admire these golfers, whether being blind, deaf, one arm or one leg.

So next time you see a disabled golfer on course, don’t laugh and point because you also might get a golfing lesson!

http://www.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Vaughans-early-salvo-at-SA-20120508

This is the link to an article on Sport24.com where Mr. Michael Vaughan, Englands greatest Cricket Captain, now Golf commentator says that England at this stage have the best bowling attack in world cricket. Normally I wouldn’t have any issues with a statement like that but for what he said next, and I quote:

“England’s bowlers dominate most batting units everywhere these days.”

Well, “slat my sat met ‘n pap snoek”! Where were you the last few months Mr. Vaughan? How many Batting units did you dominate Mr. Vaughan? How many series victories did you achieve by dominating Mr. Vaughan? Hmmmmm!

In other sporting news, Mr. Adam Hollioake, also another former English Cricket captain decided that at the age of 40 to become a Cage Fighter. In an Exclusive interview on Sky Sports, he was telling the world that it could have gone better in his first few fights.

The English or should I say, former English Cricket Captains just have a nack of making complete idiots of themselves.

We have Hollioake as a Cage Fighter, Vaughan as a Golf Commentator (crappy one at that). What next? Nasser as a Figure Skating commentator, Mr. Atherton as Dwarf Tossing Judge? Who knows?

Cheers!

Since 1996, we had 5 winners of Super Rugby. A lot of people will say I am wrong, that Transvaal also won it way back when. Well, they did, it was Super 10 back then. Ok, so let me rephrase. Since the start of the Super 12 and beyond, we had 5 winners. They were:

the Blues with 3 Titles, ’96, ’97, ’03

the Crusaders with 7 titles, ’98, ’99, ’00, ’02, ’05, ”06 and ’08

the Brumbies with 2 titles, ’01 and ’04

the Bulls with 3 titles, ’07( Undeserved, the Sharks were screwed by ref and Linesmen), ’08, and ’10

and

what does this have to do with Stormers and the difficulty they have in becoming champions? Easy, have a look at all the Champs and the first letter of each name. They all start with either a C or a B, all but one. The Reds I believe had a lucky season and could easily have lost against a Crusaders side that lost their home last season.

If you Look at the current Super Table, it doesnt make for good reading either, The Chiefs, The Bulls and the Brumbies, all on Top.

The Stormers would really have to play well and in the process rewrite history books. I wish them the best of luck because the Sharks are so damn poor this year.