Bumpy ride for Boks

FIRES OF ANIMOSITY STOKED
The Springboks’ flight from Venice into Dublin was a bumpy experience due to the foul weather over Ireland and Britain, but it was a smooth ride compared to the welcome the tourists can expect this week.

Sunday newspapers in the Emerald Isle devoted much of their sports pages to the world champions’ visit, and most of the copy was written to stoke the fires of animosity.

The headline in the Irish Sunday Times screamed “Best of Enemies” with rugby writer Peter O’Reilly wasting no time in mentioning the Schalk Burger/Luke Fitzgerald eye-gouging incident during this year’s British & Irish Lions tour.

He quoted Irish and Lions great Fergus Slattery who said: “Because of his diet and his climate the average South African player has always been bigger than the average northern European, so the always use their physicality to try and beat the shit out of you.”

The Sunday Tribune had a huge picture of Bok flank Heinrich Brüssow in the crosshairs of a rifle telescope under the headline: “007 – Licence to Steal.”

Simmering tension between the sides dates back to 2004 when then coach Jake White said he’d only find place in his team for two Irish players.

Ireland won that contest and relationships soured further when several Irish players openly laughed at White at the post-match function following Ireland’s victory in 2006.

But the Lions tour plummeted the already strained relationship to new depths after it appeared that Burger had eye-gouged Fitzgerald during the second Test at Loftus.

Coach Peter de Villiers’ linguistically mangled defence of Burger left Lions players, and particularly Irish captain Brian O’Driscoll seething. De Villiers flippantly said, “It was part of the game,” forcing SA Rugby to make a public apology on behalf of the coach.

O’Driscoll left the tour following the second Test due to injury and lashed out at De Villiers: “To hear the South Africa coach talk about gouging being part of the game was semi-repulsive,” he said at the time.

“I just find it appalling. I truly find it a disgrace. When you think about a situation where a parent wonders about whether their child should play rugby or soccer, and you hear comments from a national team coach of that sort – and regardless of the apology he may have submitted – it’s essentially bringing the game into disrepute.

“We’re trying to promote the game, and yet you hear comments like that.” Welcome to Dublin Boks.