Green . . . with envy!

One of my colleagues is going green. No, she has not decided to start a vegetable garden in the middle of the office. Over the past month our company has been spamming us on Thursdays. What’s the cause of this frequent use of bandwidth, you might ask? Bok Fridays, and it’s time to pull on the green and gold in support of your country.

I, for one, am not ashamed to say that I do not own a Boks jersey. I did a few years ago but not anymore. In fact I did not own a Bafana jersey last year, nor did I buy a Proteas jersey during the cricket world cup. Football Fridays, Bok Fridays and Proteas Friday are not my cup of tea.

It’s my humble belief that they do nothing other than bring bad luck and cause society to wear a uniform. Go ahead, shoot me down if you disagree. No thanks, I am done with high school.

But enough about that, let’s talk rugby. Recently Boks coach Peter de Villiers (Div) made headlines after saying he should be given a medal for his work with the Boks. Upon reading this, two things immediately came to my mind. A) The papers are lying; or B) Div has gone on some bizarre adventure where he failed to see the scores his team has been getting lately.

Now I am as patriotic as the next man. I buy proudly South African and I’ve been known to braai at Christmas time. But please, enough. It doesn’t take much of a genius to diagnose the epic fail that is currently coursing its way through the Boks set-up. If their blood is green, it is surely green with envy from watching the well-oiled machines that are The All Blacks, The Aussies and even the French heading into the World Cup showpiece.

I watched last week’s game at the bank (and yes, South African banks make you wait for the duration of a rugby match for service). The team is struggling in every facet of the game. The scrum is too low, the line-outs are not well timed and even the passing game leaves much to de desired. I will not go into the number of missed tackles because I’m afraid I might get a headache. You know a team is in trouble when the coach starts saying things like, “we need that killer instinct”; surely he was not watching the same game as us. What we need is a better passing game.

The Boks traditionally have been known for their relentless physicality, power of forward packs and pace of our running backs. Currently the team is largely a mix between a lot of older, experienced players and a glut of untested youngsters. This arises from the fact that after the previous world cup there was really no development that took place to build a new team. A lot of our core players in that side retired, are injured or are just plain old (apologies gents, but it’s true).

Pound for pound, Frans Steyn is perhaps one of the best attacking options we have at the moment, and yet he is not used. His distribution is impeccable and his boot helped secure the previous title. Instead, our coach seems all too willing to opt for positional switches that have yielded little in the way of results. Most in Durban will be familiar with the tug of war about John Smit as hooker or prop.

Also, Morne Steyn has clearly been uncomfortable of late, missing crucial tackles and opting to kick rather than pass, and was played at fullback?. This is the latest in a string of decisions that have left more than a few rugby fans irked.

So if you’re wearing your Bok jersey today after a 40-7 drubbing I say kudos to you. For me, supporting the Boks these days is like paying my TV licence. I do it because it is the right thing to do. Hopefully they will do better in the world cup, but if recent results are anything to go by, Gary Kirsten might soon find he is not the only one appointed to head up a local team after a failed world championship. – Sihle Mthembu