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Archive | May, 2011

Even the Kiwis think that Dickinson is a knob

31 May

You know it is bad when even the Kiwi’s are jumping on the bandwagon and complaining about “the Dick” who blew the whistle in the match between the Reds and the Crusaders.  Hell – hasn’t any one been paying attention to Big Daddy Rugby?  Must the story be broken by stuff.co.nz to be taken seriously?

“After the shockingly inept performance by the Aussie whistle-blower in Sunday’s 17-16 defeat for the Crusaders against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, he has again found himself at the centre of controversy.

Rugby at this level shouldn’t be about the refs. Occasionally they have big calls to make and can influence the outcome of games with their decisions at the end of tight contests – fair enough. But they shouldn’t stamp their mark all over matches the way Dickinson did on Sunday in front of a full house. And they most certainly shouldn’t get it as badly wrong as the officious Aussie did, ruining a splendid game of rugby between two of the elite teams in this competition.”

Stuart Dickinson. What a knob.

Amen,Marc Hinton. Now if you’d just admit that once in a while Richie McCaw does actually infringe at the ruck, we’d have even more in common. The full article is available from stuff.co.nz here.

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Separated at birth? (Part 14)

31 May

Next up: Walking on water…

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What a weekend!

30 May

What a weekend for South African rugby fans.  It’s been a long long time since Saffer Super Rugby franchises played so well against their Antipodean opponents.

In the dark days of my college studies, I can still remember several weekends where the South African franchises all managed to lose against their overseas opposition and the only (relatively) bright moment was a South African win over another South African team.  I’d like to go back to my old college self and tell him things will change my friend.

All South African teams playing Aussies and Kiwis won this weekend.  Sure the Cheetahs managed to lose to the Bulls, but somebody had to, and in doing so they allowed the boys in blue shirts to stay in the hunt for the playoffs.

As if that wasn’t enough for you rugger loving Saffers out there, the Blitzbokke managed another top performance to win the 7′s in Edinburgh with a come from behind freak three tries in two minutes jail break against Australia.

If you’ve ever worn a green and gold t-shirt and tried to sing the anthemwhile simultaneously shoving biltong and Klippies down your throat, then this was your weekend! I hope you made the most of it. Heck, I hope for your sake you bought extra lottery tickets, placed money on your Superbru and even tried drunk-dialling Danica Patrick hoping for she’d remember that time you cheered for her when watching Indy on the telly.

Danica Patrick. Sometimes the sporting gods can look down upon us with favour.

On the flip side,here is a cautionary note to any girlfriends out there who have rugby loving South African boyfriends.  If he was still moody and depressed this weekend, it’s time for a change, because it doesn’t get much better than this for SA rugby fans.

Yes, it’s true that only one SA franchise is likely to make the playoffs this season, but it can’t be discounted just how significant winning in New Zealand is for South African rugby as a whole.  This is the stuff that goes into your memory banks and makes you believe you can win matches from behind. Winning is a habit as they say. Even if the Stormers don’t go on to claim the Super 15 title, the fact that the Stormers came from behind to win a match against a quality NZ team at the venue where the world cup final will be played will not be lost on the players themselves.

Just as well us South African fans had a good weekend. We’re still owed plenty from the Rudolf Straeuli era.

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Ginga on the loose

27 May

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Why so angry Jimmy?

24 May

I’d love to be able to get all the worlds’ scrum halves together into one room, ply them with free booze, and then sit back and wait for the fireworks to begin.

It’s pretty much part of a scrummies job description to be an annoying little sh&t, a niggler, to be like a fly that you can never swat, and for me one man stands out as being especially gifted in this department…the magnificent Jimmy Cowan.

Jimmy brings a special kind of “mongrel” to his role as a scrum half. There’s a certain dull pain behind those green eyes, an almost trance like expression on his face as he goes about his business on the field. I find him a strangely compelling player to watch.

He may not be the best in his position but he gets my vote as being the toughest that there is. He’s also probably the dirtiest, and if I was out drinking in a NZ bar and spotted Jimmy I certainly wouldn’t make fun of his hair to his face. I’d do it quietly behind his back.

For an example of Jimmy’s work see the video clip below which focuses on a “tackle” straight out of the Jimmy Cowan “Angry Rugby Rules!” handbook.

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Cecil Afrika – pick him for the World Cup

22 May

Cecil Afrika. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Someone this talented just has got to be picked up the “ace up the sleeve” for PdV’s world cup squad.

He is the leading 7′s try scorer, a proficient tackler and has more talent in his left fingernail than any 15s Bok player (Gio excepted of course).

Come on PdV, what do you have to lose? Start him in the pool games… he could be our Jonah.

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Danny Cipriani’s next move

20 May
Photograph of England rugby player Danny Cipri...

Danny contemplates his next bridge to burn (Image via Wikipedia)

Danny Cipriani is looking for the exit on his Melbourne Rebels contract, like a high school kid counting down the days until graduation.  Unfortunately for Danny, he has burned a few too many bridges earlier in his past for this to be an easy choice.. Let’s not forget this is the man who has the infinitely stupid move in his past of breaking up with Kelly Brook).  Even Bath don’t want him.

So where to from here Danny Boy?

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To quote “Babe”

20 May

“That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.”

~ Farmer Hoggett.

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Separated at birth (Part 13)

17 May

Midfield dynamo before 9pm, Crooner and ladies man after 10pm…

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Lady Rugga – Supersport’s new attempt at embarrassing a nation

17 May

Yikes. This is cringeworthy.  Supersport is trying to drag themselves into the 21st century by their bootlaces. In addition to giving Naas Botha one of those electronic screenwriting pens and letting Bobby Skinstad have access to the loaner iPad, they’ve decided a more balanced gender representation is required on screen. So far a good idea. But wait for it, this is Supersport, they’re not going to be satisfied until they have taken that good idea and butchered it into a gigantic embarrassment for anyone claiming South African ancestry. Queue their chauvinistic Lady Rugga competition complete with leering comments from Naas Botha and company, patronising smirks and smiles “at the ladies” and all-round general misogyny.

Now, I’m all for the initial concept. It’s fair to say the lager drinking straight male market is pretty much sown up when it comes to rugby in South Africa. Short of handing out fertility pills with biltong and braai meat, if Supersport want to grow their fan base, they’ll need to start winning over female fans and non-traditional rugby males.

So what the hell is up with the leering Arnold Geerdts as a judge?

I can’t help but get the feeling that Supersport is acting like that racist uncle we all have lurking in our family tree, “Heck I’m not racist, some of my co-workers are ….”

Arnold Geerdts and the Lady Rugga competition - there is something very creepy about all this.

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Ben Cohen fights the good fight against homophobia

15 May

Well done Ben Cohen. I always thought that for the physique and power that Ben Cohen had as a player he never quite dominated test rugby as much as he could have.  But he has found a worthy cause post retirement.  As a straight married man, he has taken a stand against homophobia and bullying in sport.   Good on ya, Ben. You’ve even made the New York Times with this ballsy stand that can be pretty unpopular in a so-called “macho” sport.

“in a world where no active American athletes in a major male team sport has declared his homosexuality, it remains rare for athletes to chime in on the issue of gay rights. Recent exceptions, beyond Avery, include Grant Hill and Jared Dudley of the Phoenix Suns, who recorded a public-service announcement decrying gay slurs in sports.

Cohen and Taylor are going much further.

Cohen, 32, just retired from a rugby career that included a World Cup title for England in 2003 and more than a decade with the Northampton Saints. Despite being married with 3 ½-year-old twin daughters, he has long had a huge following among gay fans.”

Rugby has a lot of ugly skeletons in this closet – especially in South Africa and we’ve done precious little to rectify this situation, except whinge about our “rights’ and “symbols”. The Varsity Cup in South Africa is a noteworthy exception taking a stand against Violence Against Women.  Other than that, it is just the usual cringe worthy stuff – instead of tackling the real problems in our society, we get Steve Hofmeyer bleating about folk rights and Victor Matfield tackling porn on DSTV.

Good grief Springboks, take a look up north where players are putting their celebrity to actual good use and learn a lesson.  This country could use it, and it might make the Springbok emblem a little more acceptable to a larger base.

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Vintage Stuart Dickinson makes another game “about him”

14 May

Dickinson contemplating how best to screw up the game he is officiating.

Early warning to readers – I haven’t had my customary post Stormers loss “cooling off period” before I wrote this piece. Stuart Dickinson is a name that lives infamy for most South African rugby fans.  It’s fair to say he rivals Malema in unpopularity in some parts of the republic. Dickinson has been at the hands of a many a shocking call going back to the early days of Super rugby, even calling 16 consecutive penalties against the Stormers and none for them in a memorable Dickinson performance several years ago.  Dickinson has lost none of his charm since then.

Cut to the Waikato game today where the Stormers were in cruise control up 20-3 against a Chiefs team that looked tired and jaded. Aplon and Kahui were in a chase for the ball in the in-goal area, with Aplon holding his line and appearing to hold onto Kahui as he dove for the ball.

Now I am as biased as anyone out there, but even the kiwi commentators were saying it was touch and go whether or not a penalty try could be awarded.  The irritating part of this TMO decision was that when it was referred to the television ref, Dickinson practically got on his knees and begged the TMO to give him a reason to give Aplon a yellow. Not once.  Twice.  He reminded the TMO that he was looking for another incident in addition to the try.  The result was a yellow for Aplon and a penalty try (talk about double jeopardy) and even more of a points swing during the 10 minute sin-bin.

The Stormers 2nd half performance (throwing away a 20-3 lead) was dismal enough on its own to deserve the loss. Dickinson doesn’t get full credit for the choke, the halfback combination of the Stormers was also woeful. But Dickinson is the kind of guy that brings out the worst in rugby fans.

The really irritating thing about his performance was not only this incident, or that when Peter Grant received a massive “no-arms” early hit he only blew a penalty, but it is the way that Dickinson, like Wayne Barnes, needs to feel like he has made an impact on the game.  He has the look of one of those refs that isn’t happy unless the camera is on him making the big decisive calls and asserting his authority Eric Cartman-like on the game (respect-my-authoritah!).

What rubbed salt into the wounds was that, as followthebounce correctly tweeted, you could just imagine Arnold Geerts in the Supersport studio drooling at the prospect of being able to call it “a game of two halves”.  Cut to studio, hey presto and Arnold did not disappoint.  I hate to be “one of those fans”, but seriously – Dickinson cocked this game up.

Refs like this really ruin games from being a spectacle about players to a spectacle about the correctness or incorrectness of their calls.  Well done Stuart – you managed yet again to make a good game about you rather than about rugby.

For the record – the Stormers went on to lose 23-30.

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Tip of the hat to the Reds

13 May

The Reds pulled of another impressive victory this season when they beat the Blues 37-31 in the “Durban of Australia”, Brisbane. Major of tip of the hat to you, Reds squad and Reds coaching team. The Bundie will be flowing copiously in that part of the world. And well deserved!

As Phil Kearns remarked the other day from the Ozzie commentary booth, if you owned a Reds jersey a few years ago you were ashamed of yourself. It wasn’t too long ago the Reds under Eddie Jones were getting their asses handed to them each week by such lowly teams as visting Saffer touring squads. The memory of the 92-3 pounding at the hands of the Bulls in 2007 would scar most franchises into a post-traumatic stress disorder. Hell the Boks still haven’t gotten over the Twickenham bashings they received during the Straeuli era.

Not only are the Reds topping the Ozzie conference, but they are doing it with an impressive attacking style of rugby. They are starting to bring back the old Queensland Red aura when Horan and Little were the centre combination. Ewan Mackenzie has done a great job in backing a young squad, Quade Cooper in particular. It makes you think, if we had a Quade Cooper in South Africa, would he get the backing that has been given to him in Australia?

The look very strong contenders for a home semi-final and given the history of this competition, a home semi is better than gold. Well done Brisbane.

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Financial bail outs come to the world of rugby

12 May

The Kiwi press this week has been reporting that the New Zealand Rugby Union will be providing financial assistance to the Cantebury Rugby Union, home of the Crusaders.

While some of us may have thoughts that rush to visions of some lowly accountant in the back office of the Cantebury Rugby Union engaging in credit default swaps, naked short selling and collateralized debt obligations while simultaneously shorting the coffee futures market thus necessitating a financial bail out, the reality is far more sobering:  Christchurch is still reeling from the after effect of the massive earthquake earlier in the year.

Crusaders rugby in happier times.

The cobbled together recovery plans for Christchurch rugby, including hosting a game at Twickenham, have not had the financial impact rugby fans may have hoped for. It’s just not financially viable from a ticket sales perspective to host the mighty Crusaders in small 10,000 seater stadiums while the team waits for a stadium to be rebuilt.

It’s a pretty poor showing that SANZAR as a whole aren’t providing assistance to Crusaders rugby in their time of need. For years both Australia and South Africa have benefited from having the tv ratings boost of having the unbeatable men from Christchurch in town.

The original story is up on Fox Sports here.

So here’s to our brothers and sisters in Christchurch and on behalf of rugby fans everywhere – we are sending good vibes to the kiwis as they try to put their rugby union back together.

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Is Rugby Union’s first Boy Band just around the corner?

11 May

There seems to be quite a few stories doing the rounds in the media lately about rugby players misbehaving off the field.

It’s all fairly tame stuff when compared to the exploits of their counterparts in League and AFL, but a number of our “rugby union bad boys” are repeat offenders and are most likely skating on very thin ice, meaning that they could soon find themselves without a rugby playing job, in which case I have a suggestion…

Band together oh you wayward souls! Quite literally band together. Give us Rugby Unions’ very first “Boy Band”.
Don’t think it’ll work? Well how’s this for a killer, all singing, all dancing, hysteria-inducing line-up…

Danny “Dazzler” Cipriani
The “Cute & cuddly” one. Not quite an expert at anything, but he looks good and the ladies love him, so he’s in.

The Cute & Cuddly one

Gavin “Strangely brown” Henson
The “aloof and moody” one. Terrible with communication and a bit of a loner. Prefers to express himself through the medium of dance. He’ll do just fine.

The Moody & Aloof one

Pedrie “Postal” Wannenburg
Older and not as pretty as the others so we’ll give him some fake dreadlocks and some stick on tatoos and all of a sudden he’s the “edgy / alternative” one. Welcome aboard!

The Alternative / Edgy one

Andy “Just a couple of sherbets” Powell
The “Cheeky chappy”. The loveable bad boy. Mums and housewives will love him. Men will want to be him. Or slap him. An obvious choice.

The Cheeky Chappy

Quade “Mini” Cooper
The unofficial leader and “brains” of the group. Will choreograph all the moves himself. Most likely to quit at some stage to go solo. Simply, a must have.

The Brains

Band name? I’m thinking “Age of Consent” would do quite nicely. Either that or “Quick Ball“.

To get things moving here’s a few song titles that the boys could use:

      1. Crouch, touch, pause, engage! (All night long)
      2. Straight into touch (I don’t wanna wait no more)
    3. Heel against the head (Push a lil’ harder!)

See? It’s as simple as that.

When it comes to the Management side of things I’m pretty sure that there’ll be a few coaches looking for work after the World Cup, so who knows, maybe Graham Henry will be interested in a change of scenery after the Kiwis get knocked out in the Semis?

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Midseason wrap – Newlands loss was the canary in the coal mine for SA teams

10 May

Well that’s it folks. You can plan to have your wedding on June 9 now, because the weekend of the Super 15 final sure as heck ain’t going to be a weekend to celebrate South African rugby. The Stormers’ loss this weekend is the early signal that the trophy cabinets will be empty this year.

The format of the competition gives South Africa one freebie in the post-season. By virtue of the conference system one South African team has to go through. And that will be about it. It doesn’t look likely that any South African team will be good enough to earn a home advantage for the business end of the post-season. And that will kill you.

Here’s why it will be a trophy-less Super 15 for the teams from the Republic:

Lions and Cheetahs: both teams used to be part of the old Cats franchise. And they still play like it. Despite promising starts to the season, they let you down each week with atrocious defence and an inability to grind out close games. Clearly both teams have been implementing Dick Muir’s patented “Red Sea” defence. Here’s a clue: when Kobus Wiese introduces your team as likely to be involved in an exciting match because they are “great on attack” you know it’s just a euphemism for having crap defence. Next to that defence, anything looks “great”.

Bulls: Heyneke’s influence is over and the structures he put in place are no longer supporting the new management team. When your play is based on the simple premise of stuffing up everyone up front and grinding them into the dirt it’s hard to win when your squad is made up retired bridge players and little old ladies from the church fund-raiser. This team is old, old, old.

Sharks: A win over the ship going down known as the Brumbies doesn’t save the Sharkies I am afraid. A poor overseas tour left them with a lot of hard work to do and this isn’t the same Sharks squad of a few years ago that could pull the late season comeback off. There’s no young John Smit charging up the middle of the park and no Francois Steyn banging over drop goals from the parking lot of the Shoprite-Checkers outside Kings Park stadium.

Stormers: Despite whatever Kool-Aid other SA rugby outlets were drinking, the Stormers were the best bet to bring home the title for South Africa. However, this weekend’s loss against the Crusaders exposes a cruel truth. They just don’t have a pack capable of domination. Yes, having the flash of Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie will get you through the mid-table games against the Aussies, but if you want to compete against the Blues and the Crusaders you need to have some serious uglies in your front row. The Stormers have hookers, but their props are more interested in looking flash in the backline then they are in doing the hard work. Here’s a clue that you have a totally shit front row: Supersport commentators glow about how much work your props get done “around the paddock”. In other words, they aren’t scumming or mauling – they’re just looking pretty hanging out on the wing.

That’s all folks. Your June 9 weekend should open up for a round of 18 or that wedding you need to go to.

The Stormer's loss against the Crusaders signals a doomed Super 15 for SA teams.

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Big Daddy readers – by the numbers

5 May

One of the advantages of using WordPress as your blogging software is that it provides some nifty statistics on the visitors to your site.  As a visitor of our site, we thought it would be interesting to see the illustrious company you are keeping when it comes to your surfing habits.

Besides  - we thought we’d do the WikiLeaks thing and share our secrets with our user base in protest against the government’s proposed Protection of Information Act.

Knock yourself out folks:

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The “Not so faithful” Newlands fans

4 May

There’s two types of South African rugby fan which makes me throw up just a little bit in my mouth, and unfortunately with the arrival of the Crusaders this week, Newlands on Saturday will not be as “Pro-Stormers” as one would like to think it would be.

I’m not about to get into the politics of our country, or our rugby teams for that matter, we’re very much a post-isolation blog here at Big Daddy Rugby, but it has to be said that the folk who come to watch rugby at Newlands purely to support the opposition are some seriously “stuck in the past” people.

I was at the Crusaders game at Newlands last season (or was it two seasons ago?) and I’m not exaggerating when I say that in certain parts of the ground the “Kiwi fans” out numbered the Stormers fans fairly comfortably. (And it didn’t take a genius to figure out that not many of them were from the Canterbury region).

There surely can’t be much joy found from hanging on to so much bitterness?

On the flip side I remember watching the Boks play the Fatties at Twickenham a few years back and being completely dumbstruck by a number of Bok “fans” who were waving the old flag about, in an attempt I assume to make some kind of statement about their dissatisfaction with the state of SA rugby.
They failed miserably and just came off looking like a bunch of ignorant goons.

I genuinely don’t understand the thought process here, or maybe I should say the lack of a thought process?

Blah, blah, blah….

Anyways, time to get off of my soap box now I suppose, but first I must mention that I’m very much looking forward to seeing my current “man crush” Israel Dagg in full flight this weekend. The kid has some crazy skills.
It really is quite amazing when you consider the amount of depth the Kiwis have at the moment, especially in the backline.

Add to that McCaw, Read, Sonny Bill, Fruen and hopefully Carter at some stage and we’re all set for a cracking game.

I’ll be shouting for the Stormers 100%.

A picture of Gio Aplon...because he's a genius.

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What to do with old man John Smit?

2 May

A photo of John Smit taken during his more youthful days as a Bok captain.

With Pieter De Villiers announcing today that John Smit would be the captain of the Bok team that heads to New Zealand one question more than any other is on supporters’ minds:

How exactly will John Smit be used in New Zealand?

Sure, we all know he is the greatest leader of rugby players this country has ever produced (hat tip to Francois Pienaar) and an all around nice guy (hat tip to you John Smit), but the impressive performance of both Bismarck Du Plessis and Deon Fourie have made many question whether Smit would make it as first choice hooker on playing ability alone.

I think we can agree, probably not.  He is being picked because he is to the Bok team what Yoda was to Luke Skywalker. Bloody important. The Bok team just isn’t the same without him. They crumble into jelly legged Straeuli-era shadows of themselves without the ice-cool leadership of Barney.

So here are some options for PdV when it comes to finding a spot for our Yoda:

  • Start with Smit at hooker and move him to prop for the 2nd half when Bismarck Du Plessis is brought on.
  • Start with Bismarck and bring on John with ten minutes to go – or at any hint of a choke.
  • Waterboy and kicking tee bringer-onner.  He could always whisper his magic words into the Bok huddle at that point (“Afraid of yourselves, do not be” or words to that effect)
  • Team Mascot – Victor could bring him out out of the team tunnel during the run-on and John could sit at the half way flag giving icey-stares to opposition players and performing secret hand-gestures to Victor Matfield throughout the game.
Well… I hope Rassie and PdV are working on some combination of the above.  Any other ideas?

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Separated at birth? (Part 12)

2 May

Ahhhh…What a cute little donkey!

Asses

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