rugby365′s decorated and respected writer Paul Dobson tells us exactly how ugly an animal South African rugby has become, despite the glory of winning a second World Cup!
Writes Paul Dobson for Rugby365
Somebody vomited on the Mona Lisa. Imagine that for ugliness.
Disfigurement is ugly. The greater the beauty, the uglier the disfigurement.
When an Australian geologist took a hammer and disfigured Michelangelo’s Pieta in St Peter’s, the world shuddered with horror.
Do you remember the days when you put a record on the record player and sat back to listen to Mantovani and the needle stuck in a groove? It was so ugly. The contrast between the Mantovani’s easy strings and the ugly sound of a stuck record made the grating ugliness so much worse.
And so the Jake White business is all the uglier because it disfigured that which was glorious and beautiful. The World Cup was won, the players behaved with composure and maturity, and the nation burst with pride and joy.
An interviewer put a mike in front of a black man and asked him his hero, and he said: “John Smit.” The interviewer put the mike in front of a blonde girl and asked her her hero, and she said: “Bryan Habana.” Race had vanished in joy and there was the prospect of a new and bright dawn. South Africans were South Africans and united. It was 1995 revisited with even greater prospects.
Then came the matter of the coach and all the recriminations, the accusations and counteraccusations, the tawdry “revelations”. The generosity of the victory and the reaction to the victory was scarred with self-serving. It has been disgusting and so demoralising. It is so demoralising that that which has been crafted with so much skill and effort can be destroyed in one foul act.
In the light of the damage that has been done, it does not matter who is to blame. What has happened is ugly, a disfigurement of a nation. It is the stuck needle, the vomit on the face of the Mona Lisa, the hammer on the Pieta.
Nobody is talking about the World Cup any more. Nobody seems interested. In fact people are shying away from it as if it was merely a spent dream. It may as well have happened years and years ago. Instead the talk is of Jake White, Oregan Hoskins, the Stofiles, the Watsons – a long way from the heroism on the fields of France.
Does it matter if White was right? Does it matter if White was wrong? Does it matter if White was indulging in a public relations exercise to add to the wealth rugby has already brought him?
Does it matter if Hoskins and his people treated White badly, undermining him? Does it matter if Hoskins and his people acted with unseemly haste to rid themselves of White and unseemly haste to appoint a new coach, leaving White, living dead, to take his team abroad?
What matters is the harm done. Dedicated men with painstaking skill could make the Pieta better, Mantovani can play on far finer equipment, the face of Mona Lisa can be washed. But what genius can restore South Africa to the shortlived happiness and hope that came with the World Cup?
Damn those who disfigured our country. Tie millstones round their necks and cast them into the depths of the Atlantic. What they have done is criminal lunacy.
December 19th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Seems like the cat has got everyone’s tongues.
So, alors, dear friends.
December 19th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
depends on what you focus on, nothing can take away from the RWC achievement.
However, in the aftermath of jubilation came a fired coach with all his revelations. SA rugby has been a cock-up for a while now, and it should be criticised, perhaps its all come to a point in an anti-climax following our victory.
Ultimately, its up to each SA person whether they want to sling mud at SARU or not.
December 19th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
I blame Jake for ruining the honeymoon.
December 19th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
cant say i feel too depressed, second RWC in the bag and a pound of flesh extracted from SARU.
perfect christmas present.
December 20th, 2007 at 2:18 am
Ditto Cab…
December 20th, 2007 at 2:20 am
Without JW South African rugby would be finished as we know it… left to jthe gravytrain jackals and transformation buzzards to finish off the remains of the carcass… thanks to the victory there is a glimmer of hope…
Now if SARU could only be run like the Sharks…
December 20th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Roses are red , violets are blue
Jake won THE cup, so critics fuck you
Umshini wami mshini wami khawuleth’umshini wami
ok, iPassport wami
December 20th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Without JW South African rugby would be finished as we know it… left to jthe gravytrain jackals and transformation buzzards to finish off the remains of the carcass… thanks to the victory there is a glimmer of hope…
Comment by bryce_in_oz — December 20, 2007 @ 2:20 am
What on earth do you base that on? Very wild conjecture to say the very least.
IMO there are loads of caoches who could have taken SA to a WC victory.
Kudos to Jake. But to credit him as the saviour of SA Rugby is a bridge too far IMO.
With our WC draw, and given the number of talented players in this country, any coach worth his salt would have taken us to WC glory.
The problem is that there were too many monkeys employed before Jake in the form of Streuli, du Plessis etc who simply weren’t suited to the job.
That lead to the situation where a coach that just had a rugby brain would be heralded as the messiah.
December 20th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
To add to the above – why do you think it is that English and kiwi fans dont want Jake as their coach?
Because they have had decent coaches from the beginning.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
some things never change.
December 21st, 2007 at 5:02 am
It’s a bit of a pity that a Journa should write something like that. If nothing else, Jake took his team to another RWC. In doing this he had a very difficult task getting 15 team players to gell on regular occasions. He has developed a pack that is right on top of the forward game and only the AB’s can match them, most times. The backline is still a mess.
There has been no niggle, no scandal of any sort….just a 15 man team that is clearly the best SA side since 1995. Quite frankly, I can’t think of any coach (except perhaps Dick Muir) who is remotely close. The next coach simply can’t front up to Jake in any respect….that is unless someone has been kept under wraps that we haven’t seen. The current lot are no more than a bunch of posers (Muir excepted)!
Patrick.