jontheref says...

Pietie

"Skinskad is miles ahead of that England dooms day sayer Brian Moore."

In terms of commentating, knowledge of the game, knowledge of law, you are having a laff!

Posted 09:02 24th April 2012

startledwombat says...

Edit to say: the Nel case. [Oops, sorry]

Posted 04:48 24th April 2012

sandal says...

@ Ramage

Thank you for organising your comments in paragraphs. They are far more readable now!

Posted 03:43 24th April 2012

pog_mahone says...

Wwolf Squirrel, fatbot. Can you explain why it is OK to make as much noise as you possibly can to put off the opposition hooker or an opposition throw, but you have to be absolutely silent for kicks or be faced with a chorus of indignant and self-righteous shushing? It all seems a little arbitrary to me but perhaps you can shed some light on it?

APV1 etc, sadly rugby is on an inexorable slide downward, it is inevitable when the sport is played for money rather than love (the definition of amateur). My advice for what it's worth is to turn off the TV and stick with the grassroots game. That's where you meet the type of people and have the type of experiences that you called out in your post.

Posted 22:55 23rd April 2012

DTno8 says...

Re. the booing of kickers. Yes it is off putting but its all part of home field advantage too. I would hate to see rugby crowds go the same way as football crowds. I love the banter and good atmosphere when you go to see a game but at the same time its the player kicking the balls job to put it through the sticks. Most professionals are on around the £100,000 mark plus now. When your getting paid that much to do something that I do for free then a few boos really should be water off a rich ducks back.

Re Bob Skinstad. I watched the game Saturday andheard the comment first hand. I had no idea that it was a racist slur of any kind. I have never heard it before. Whilst I do not contest the legitmacy of the slur or condone any form of prejudice, when I heard the comment I thought he was refering to the fact that the tackle was head high. A coconut shot. A head shot? I believe that the comment was purely meant in that way. If I had said something similar, that would not make me racist as I had no idea that it was a racist term. You can't be racist by accident.

Posted 21:43 23rd April 2012

jontheref says...

I am familiar with the term, and as Skinstad is better travelled than I, I would suspect he does know what it means.

Agreed though, if it is genuinely used by native south africans amongst themselves, it is a bit rich and very PC when complaints about it are raised!

There was booing fron the Irish crowd at the Wales game at the Aviva in February. Fact.

They may not do it as much as at other stadia, but they do do it!

Posted 20:40 23rd April 2012

Dylbull says...

I'm not familiar with that term at all!

But I would imagine that Bob Skinstad would be, with the ammount of rugby he has played, the ammount of journalism he has done down south and simply the ammount of people he has met.

Matfield coming back, tough one... while I do recognize his leadership abilities, I do think we have enough talent at lock and I do think there are other players who have the ability to lead the team. We have to start building for 2015.

It is very sad what is happening with rugby fans at some of the grounds these days. I remember from school boy level we were told to shut up whenever a kick was taken, no offence to the kiwis, but I really started to notice it at the world cup, booing the kicker and booing quade cooper.... I am not a huge fan of the guy at all, but that seemed a bit much. As a bulls fan, I am disgusted and embarassed by that idiot who threw the bottle and believe he should have been banned for life.

Posted 18:39 23rd April 2012

markpat says...

I didn't think anything of the comment, assuming he was referring to a head on head collision.

Personally, I didn't think there was too much wrong with the tackle, either. The commentators first claimed that he didn't even try to use his arms, but you could clearly seehim try and wrap his arms, but he clashed heads first and his arms just flapped, it wasn't a lead with the shoulder. You could argue that it was intended head to head, but I didn't see that either, it looked like he aimed for a cheat high tackle and got it slightly wrong. I busted my face one game standing up into a tackle and smashing heads with the winger, only to have accusations from the opposition of trying to deliberately tackle his forehead with my cheekbone!

Also, @Dafydd29, Stevens wasn't banned for performance enhancing drugs, not comparable.

Posted 17:16 23rd April 2012

APV1 says...

@ BokAvenger - if you don't know what something means, don't say it. Simple. It's quite an obscure turn-of-phrase for him to randomly have used without knowing it in advance. And to suggest he though it meant "head" is daft:

"Lelia Masaga has gone head high in an absolute HEAD tackle straight onto Lwazi Mvovo and tried to take his head off,". It's absolute nonsense to suggest that this is what he meant. He knew.

And I'm not on a saffa-hunt and always liked BS. But I hate racism and have a very low tolerance-threshold for it. If he's too much of a "domkop" to understand what he's saying, he shouldn't be commentating.

BokAvenger - this isn't one of your conspiricy theories or an attack on all Saffas. This is an intolerance of racism. I'm surprised you're not more upset that "one of your own" (i.e. a South African) has used a racist term. I find it mystifying that you're so accepting and almost trying to justify it. I think that the SA version of coconut sounds pretty insulting too, regardless of who "usually" says it. But in the context you mention, it makes even less sense.

@ yans - I'll defer to your greater knowledge of English Language technicalities (I can't help it if I can't even speak my "mother tongue"!!). But it's certainly not "racial".

I'm no angel and am not on some crusade. But those in the public eye need to behave better than those of us who are not. If I want to get so drunk that I vomit in my own shoes, I'm embarassing me and perhaps a small group of friends or family. If a rugby player does it, he's seen as an ambassador for the game and his club / country. As such, they are vilified for their actions. And this is no different. BS needs to be better than those who are not chosen to commentate.

And, in my opinion, anyone who suggests otherwise, is full of BS.

Posted 16:30 23rd April 2012

PTplayer says...

Just a thought. Would be great to see a club like the Barbarians associated with the RAF Spitfires Rugby Sevens. I know they are mostly an invitational 15 a side club and need to manage their player requests carefully but the cause is great and it would be phenomenal to see a couple of current rugby stars on the field.

Posted 15:33 23rd April 2012