The time has come, the Fatboy said, to write about rugger.
Rugger is not politics, you might say, and this is Politicsweb. But I say what my bubbe said when I proudly told her I’d been given colours for athletics: “Vot’s athletics, rugby? Vot’s cricket, netball? Vot’s politics, rugby?”
Anyway, you and I know that everything is about politics, especially in Seffrica. Look at the Springbok team. Mostly it’s been similar to the ANC’s top office bearers whom my Latin teacher, Mrs Hudson, would have called “sick, lame, and lazy” – and I’d add “the geriatric”.
Even the ANC SG, Gwede Mantashe, a man of huge charm, intellect and eloquence, and clearly a former fourth team prop (and still wearing, you notice, an antiquated gum guard), even he referred to this when he remarked that Heyneke Meyer shouldn’t be playing madalas at the Rugby World Cup (RWC). Or look at hooker Bismarck du Plessis. He’s has about as much control of his brain as does Dianne Kohler Barnard. Or how about Meyer? He’s about as cogent as Baleka Mbete. Though I have to say she seems a lot less hysterical than he does.
As for lock Eben Etzebeth, he’s about as humorous as Julius “little Julie” Malema proclaiming a point of order. According to Mike Greenaway of the non-Independent group, Etzebeth “was utterly unamused earlier this week when a reporter from New Zealand asked: ‘Eben, has anybody ever told you that you look like Borat (the character from the movie of the same name played by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen)? I mean, is that your nickname, Borat?’ Etzebeth glared: ‘No! I have no nickname.’
“The bruising lock, “ continued Greenaway, “made a point of muttering something unrepeatable under his breath in Afrikaans as he walked past the stirrer after the press conference.”