30 Silver coins.

It has just gone past 11h00 here in Alberton, Johannesburg, I am sitting in front of the television waiting for the rain delayed cricket test match between South Africa and New Zealand, I look forward to it quite a bit seeing that at least in cricket we are better than New Zealand.

I don’t know about other people, but I hate losing. It is one of the most disappointing feelings in life. Even though I am aware of the fact that you can’t always win it is still not good enough for me.

I hate that sport has cheats and gamblers, it is to me the purest form of honesty, ability and achievement. I don’t care much for politics, I suppose it must be a bit of an oxymoron that a South African male doesn’t care about it. But I really don’t. I do hate that it influences our sport, these damn political agendas that mar our proud sporting tradition.

I had a chat to a friend earlier tonight who is going through a really tough time, he isn’t in a good place. Then I come onto a sports forum and I see how passionate people get about rugby and how oversensitive and overbearing they can get when their team wins, loses or draws.

To them at that moment when they are talking sport, it is almost as if they lose their humanity, they become obnoxious and offensive.

Well that isn’t really true, only a few get that way, most are decent people who just want to share their heartache and jubilation and the passion about their sport.

That to me is what is so wonderful about sport, apart from the losing of course. I really respect All Black rugby, but hell I hate it that they are better than us. Then I start thinking about why they are better and it strikes me that between politics, useless coaches and poor administrators, our rugby are being sold for 30 silver coins. You see I am a traditionalist, I want the Currie Cup to be our pride and joy, I want it to be the toughest and most competitive provincial competition in world rugby. I don’t want SANZAR to run after broadcasting deals to the detriment of the quality of SH rugby. I realise the purity is simply not there anymore and I get angry.

But then like now, I think about a friend who is going through a hard time and realise as much as rugby is a big part of my life, it really is just insignificant when compared to what we are experiencing outside every day.

So when you get all uptight and think it is the end of the world, think about the realities in life, and that it matters a whole lot more than us being sport fanatics.

Superb!Life can be pretty sh*tty but Rugby is fantastic.
Everybody please embrace it.

Here Here,

It is just a game after all, and there are far more important things in life of course. But Rugby can be a release, provide some get away time and help take your mind off your troubles too.

We can have purity but for that to happen every or most involved have to make a decision about what is right and wrong.

Some people say its okay to leave your team to chase the dollar whether it's Carl Hayman giving up on the ABs to earn massive Euros in England and France. Others disagree with him and retire in NZ having only ever played for a the same team their whole career (think Jeff Wilson - Otago, Highlanders, ABs).

Some think its okay to cheat - think Bloodgate or diving Andy Hayden.
Some boo the opposition others wind up and argue with others fans.

We all choose to do this stuff.
Some used to say that sport builds character. I disagree sport reveals your character.

I've never played rugby (skinny little runt and mummy wouldn't let me) but I love it and hope that we can just all get on.

Don't really know how to respond to that, biltong. Very good, very open article. I tend to think this old forum has been an education for you. No, not suggesting you need one! No, I don't know you personally, obviously; but knowing that name on the screen..and knowing how it has evolved in my eyes, seeing how you articulate learning to tolerate the nuisance guys etc...getting to know us of the NH more too - our sensibilities etc. I just see a biltong who is evolving.......into a very strict Mod I might add!

The thread and the topic of the seriousness of sport in our perceptions whilst a much more serious world ticks away in the background...yeah, like you I hate losing. I physically hurt- the mental becomes the physical. But I'm probably a little unusal in that I'm not a big sports fan at all. I watch sport on and off, watch the football WC, watch Grand prix a little; I'm just really not drawn to sport emotionally (more passionate about the arts, film etc) - but that's why rugby continues to puzzle me. I don't know why it is that rugby (Union!) captures me to such an extent. I've tried to watch league and I get the same dull thud reaction that most other sports give me. There is something about rugby union that grips me and sends me into wild emotional swings (exhilaration and morbid depression) I've watched it since I was a boy back in the 70s and if anything it still grows in me. An obsession perhaps - and they're very hard to rationalise.

But behind all that, I certainly know sport, rugby and the need to win is something isolated from the true complexities of my life. I realise I might use rugby to redirect emotions that I perhaps run from in the serious world that exists outside rugby. Is it, and has it always been just a crutch to channel emotions I don't want cluttering an all too complex real life? Well, I'm still working on that one and it's so pointed that you talk as you do now because I really have recently being asking myself why I need rugby so much, success so much...and I've been kinda saying a time will come when I need to draw back and give time to many other facets of my life that like most people often need my undivided attention and aren't getting it!

Very interesting article Biltong.

That reminds me of the old Dean Martin gag.

The FLY walked across the mirror, he said "Thats another way of looking at it"

I do miss the amateur days to be honest. They were so much more fun.

I miss the carefull planning involved in taking a friend (who had broken his leg playing rugby on the weekend) and placing him gently down at work next to some scaffolding then scattering tools. Wait for the boss to arrive and explain to him how our friend fell as he was taken away in the ambulance. We had to do that as he would get workers compensation, he would get nothing from the rugby and probably lose his job otherwise.

Thats got to be up there with the earliest forms of cheating in rugby

Ha, that's a grand story, billy!

It happened on more than one occasion AsBo. I miss those days

At least that was an honourable cheat. The game itself wasn't marred.

Its all good, its what we used to do to help your mates

When I was younger I used to divide my life into segments eg work, sport, family etc and I would justify my behaviour in each sometimes to the detriment of others - many separate live if you like. Now I realise that I have one life and it is shorter than it once looked. The people I share it with are the most important thing I have and it's not a game. Rugby is a game and only that. The best game in the world of course and one of the reasons I enjoy my life so much.

I realise for some that rugby is also politics, business, money etc and that changes the balance they give it in their lives. For me, I'm happy that it is only a game.

Does this mean that you forgive Bryce Lawrence Biltong?

If it helps, 2009 wasn´t that long ago. That hurt a lot losing 2 matches at home and a whitewash with the away game. Watching you win in 2007 hurt as well. It´s not all one-sided mate! But what doesn´t kill you makes you stronger. There is no so such thing as success or failure. You always have to keep moving forward and try to be the best version of yourself. Wins along the way make things appear sweeter just as losses make you think things appear more disastrous. But it´s the journey not the destination. SA has had a few detours along the way but it´s heading in the right direction. We had to wait 24 years to taste World Cup success again and feel that we rightfully were at the top of the rugby world. That can all too quickly change.

Who's Bryce Lawrence?





















Nah, only joking, I assume he must be a relative of BRUCE Lawrence.

If you google Bruce Lawrence you get a professor emeritus in religion. How apt that you have forgiven his cousin Bryce. Now in good faith, you must turn the other cheek and take the dodgy calls against you in the 4N with good faith. Thou shalt not make death threats against referees. God hates that.

I must admit though, killing him was never on my mind, that way he wouldn't learn a thing. However slapping him so hard that his snot would orbit his face for a while sounded like a good idea at the time.

It's not a game of life and death as Bill Shankly once said

That may well be true, but there are times we are so immersed in it, we won't believe it.

That's what keeps bringing us back - if we had no emotional connection then it would be futile. On occasion however the emotional connection is too much and leads to irrational behaviour more so in defeat than victory, but it is still there even in victory. Like Kipling said, we need to treat both imposters in the same vein. Unfortunately what Bill shankly said was "It's not a game of life and death; its much more important than that" - They were in different times and should not be taken out of context however.

Viking lady is trying to understand the game now. She still has no idea as to why i get so excited when Ireland are playing

I don't understand why you get so excited when Ireland play

You need another slap Ruby <whereistheslapemotican>

Rugby Union to my mind mostly relates to warfare - ancient tribal warfare. I assume that's the instincts that are whetted when watching it. You can't resist it, your genes just react.

Ok - just kidding - I used to get excited about Wales even in the 1990's - rugby, emotion, irrational thinking and inevitable despair - It must be some kind of illness Post-traumatic rugby disorder

I need beer now, my mind is leaving me

Club rugby is back on tonight though

Warfare! does that mean Botha and Barritt et al are guilty of mutiny or desertion?

eirebilly wrote:I need beer now, my mind is leaving me

Club rugby is back on tonight though

That's the difference between you and Gibson; Billy. Under similar circumstances Gibbo would say, "I need my mind now, my beer is leaving me"

Gibbo's mind usually deserts him around midnight, if your quick you get to ctach some cracking posts before he comes to his senses and edits them

RubyGuby wrote:Warfare! does that mean Botha and Barritt et al are guilty of mutiny or desertion?

Nah, they were never drafted.

Tha game lost its soul when it went pro thats one thing I think we wil all say.
Those of us who remember the amateur days often look back at those days with tinted glasses... the rugby has got better but much what we loved about the sport is slowly disappearing.

I don't blame the players who sell out though.. I most certainly would.

People like Hayman, Jaque Fourie, Frans Steyn are looking after themselves. Fans demand they stay and play for the honour and for the fans... but when they're old and grey is honour & their by then their ageing fans going to pay their medical bills or put their kids through school????

In terms of selling out and playing for another country.. it depends on the situation but some are very dubious.
Brad Barritt, Mike Catt etc... they're English South African and probably could have got capped by SA had they persisted a little longer.

Barritt is an odd one... he was a good player, well respected and on the fringes of the bok squad... then left... but it took him 3 years to get capped by ENG, and given SA have limitations at 12 he certainly would have been capped by SA.... if Olivier could get capped, so would have Barritt.

English South Africans are as close to actually being English as anyone else in the world... in fact sometimes I think they're more English then the English... they certainly hold onto long departed traditions the motherland lost years ago.

I like most others do question players like Botha, Cockbain, Marsh, Rathbone, Vickerman etc on why they play for countries on residency alone.

Then again.. it happened all the time in the old days.... think of players like Rupert Moon, Dewi Morris, Willi Ofahengaue, John Gallagher... in fact, didn't Clive Woodward once trial with Australia after he moved there after giving up his rugby career in ENG and relocating to AUS????

So perhaps its not always about money.... as those guys certainly would have got no financial benefit from playing for someone else.

nganboy wrote:We can have purity but for that to happen every or most involved have to make a decision about what is right and wrong.

Some people say its okay to leave your team to chase the dollar whether it's Carl Hayman giving up on the ABs to earn massive Euros in England and France. Others disagree with him and retire in NZ having only ever played for a the same team their whole career (think Jeff Wilson - Otago, Highlanders, ABs).

Some think its okay to cheat - think Bloodgate or diving Andy Hayden.
Some boo the opposition others wind up and argue with others fans.

We all choose to do this stuff.
Some used to say that sport builds character. I disagree sport reveals your character.

I've never played rugby (skinny little runt and mummy wouldn't let me) but I love it and hope that we can just all get on.

I agree to a degree, but I also think that the teamwork in sport and the purpose and confidence it can give people can build character but the self-entitlement and ego it can instill can detract from it too. It can definitely change character but that doesn't always mean it does or that it is always for the better