Cynical Saffas’ sheepshagger sendoff (Mk II)

Snor might be playing silly boitjies with his ridiculous comments about Le Fuse and Co at scrum time but Jannie Public in Saffaland is mainly interested in the Pienaar Steyn conundrum.

The emergence of Morné Steyn at flyhalf has energised this rugby nation because, let’s face it, he’s a matchwinner extraordinaire after giving the All Blacks the what ho last weekend. Not only that but he’s a clean living god fearing role model, much in the mode of Donny Osmond.

The trouble is that he’s nudged out the last big thing in South African rugby, Ruan Pienaar. It was only a few short months ago that the Poedal Faker was lauding this pinup boy as a Tiger Woods clone. More like Happy Gilmore now that he’s left in Steyn’s wake. The average rugby fan is a bit torn between these two players. It’s the old ‘which style would best suit the times’ sort of argument. An all round talented ball runner and kicker like Pienaar or the more calculated Steyn.

The other talking point in South Africa is why both Januarie and Pienaar are on the bench. Ricky is ratshit at the moment, overweight and out of form. Why would you drop Olivier for Januarie when Pienaar can do a better job at scrumhalf. I guess we probably all know the reason – the quota. You can’t say that too loudly in South Afrika these days because its not politically correct. You’d have to say that this is causing a lot of angst over there at present. That’s one thing the Saffa’s admire about us, a bit of straight talking.

Another player who also seems a little hard done by, according to the locals, is Ryan Kankowski. Both Roussow and Bekker are on the bench with Roussow able to cover both flanker and lock. It all seems a little unbalanced that you’d drop Kanko altogether for a lock (Bekker).

There’s a feeling in the blogosphere that the Saffas regard the Wallabies as a more dangerous proposition than the current All Black side. They think that they’re less error prone and are on the way up, the Kiwis being on the way down. The Wallabies are regarded as a clever and intelligent side. Well, apart from Le Fuse and his renowned IQ, I’m not sure we’d all think that way but hey, they are Jarpies mind……

There’s been concern expressed about the lack of defence at inside centre. This was exposed to some degree against the British Lions and JDV (or Adi Jacobs) are not renowned for this aspect of play. JDV is on his way to Munster and has lost a bit of public support. He’s a very wingat grootkop sort of player. F*cked if I know what that means but it sure sounds good! There is a grudging respect for Morty and what he can do in this channel.

Francois Steyn is also off, to Racing Metro 92 with Chuck Berry (I’m from Queensland and I’m here to help) and the Caveman. No, not Cliff Richard and the Shadows but they’re touring here next year if you’re a fan. The South African policy is that you can select players who are domiciled overseas but they’re reluctant to do it. None of the players in the current Tri-Nations squad fit this category.

The Saffa public are pretty confident that the sheepshaggers (Mk II) will be repulsed. As always, Newlands is a very difficult place to win in. The stadium is coliseum like with the fans very close to the play. The Wallaby wingers will really cop the crap. Barney Smit has been talking up the Wobbly scrum and warning against complacency. Good one Barney, I suppose you’ve got to go through the motions when the boss is around. As an aside, I saw a poll on one of their rugby websites where 80% of participants said they should replace Snor. Graham Henry should feel positively loved then?

Lets hope the Wallabies are on song and wired for sound.