BullBoarding.

Wow, what a strange sensation, being in a rugby stadium at capacity. I mean, who knew!?! Paying at computicket and not buying from some gaurd scalping shoddy "behind-the-posts" stubs. Queuing outside the stadium, and in the tunnel and, well, everywhere as opposed to only at the beerstand, and sitting amonst a 50 000 strong blue army rather than a 40 000 strong sea of red bucket seats.

Was amazing, considered supporting the Bulls for about 8 seconds and then remembered the greats i could not leave behind. Earl Rose, Dusty Noble, Lawrence Sephake, Jannes Labascaghne. Anyway, Bulls won, was fun, good luck. That is NOT what this is about...

Its about the underdogs, the ones who run around the world eating up competition and hi-fiving the South African flag on jealous international audience's faces. (remember, you are either South African or International, its like being right or wrong, you cant be both.) In particular, i had the fortune of coming across miss Angelika Schriber. Apart from murdering waters with class and setting new standards when it comes to wakeboarding, she is busy completing her tertiary education from her base in Cairns.

As if this isn't enough, it wont be long before product endorsements and interviews have her banging down your newstands and favourite internet sites. Keep your eyes peeled, bragging rights abound, one day she'll be back on the vaal. Till then, check the comments box for links to her stylish, bitchin wins.

You got served.

Mr. Gayle as proffesional as it was, fulfilling your IPL obligations and being available for the West Indies vs England test, you only arrived for the series the day before it began. It was only when you mouthed off at England captain Andrew Strauss about his performance in other formats of the game that i thought you may be in over your head. And indeed your team was humbled in one of the most one sided matches since Bangladesh entered the test arena in 2000.


Oh well, good luck with the One-day series. South Africans will no doubt be watching the conclusion of the IPL and Penultimate weekend of Super 14. But all in all i think American Idol stole the show this week. Even in pubs on Saturday afternoon I have no doubt men will unashamedly discuss the epic saga that was AMERICAN IDOL. Sadly it showed the world how a series should be made, and that maybe the show should be left to them alone, as everyone else is simply taking from it.

I feel similarly about Earl Rose who, as i suspected, was selected for the SA Training squad named to face Namibian Invitation XV. He should not only be stopped from playing rugby before he single handedly leads to Lions Super 15 relegation but he should be prosecuted for crimes against our beloved past-time. Anyway, Bulls by 10, Canes by 8.

I feel robbed.

The Super 14 Group stages, along with the fleeting hanging ons of summer, came to an end this weekend. After picking the Waratahs to whip the Lions at Coca cola park on Friday night, the men in red actually came to play. Now im not objective when it comes to the Lions but i seriously feel that under another ref the game may have ended poorly for the touring side. Anyways, im leaving that one alone.

The main agenda of regular South African pub banter was focused on the injustices and inconsistencies surrounding the discaplinary hearings and citings of malicious and dangerous play. Actually, the only consistency shown has been that South African players recieve different, more harsh punishments for their indescretions. And now that we have made enough noise about it for the International Rugby community to listen, Bakkies Botha flat hands Kankowski- reminding the world why they are unsympathetic when it comes to Springbok whinging.

Over and above that, i just cant wait to see how the lock and 8th man combine when they share the green and gold. On the green n gold, some people think Earl Rose deserves a shot. I think those people should be shot, or at least they should be banned from watching the game or speaking about it. He is the only player who ever had the prestige of having an editing team make a montage of his mistakes in a single game, during the game. It was worth about 45 seconds of fumbles, missed tackles, wild passing and kicking out on the full. If "Loffie" hadn't put him on the wing and my girlfriend hadn't made half the Highlanders backline drunk the night before at a popular Joburg night spot, the lions could have lost that one too.

And would you believe it, people are backing Watson again. He is good, but good amongst 6 phenomenal players in the same slot, leaves him looking less likely to be selected in my eyes. But hey, the way things have been going Earl and Puke might be in, im just really glad that at the end of the day Clever is American, they might have found some reason to include him ahead of Smith at number 7.

Matsatsantsa.

Amidst the swine flu jokes and political opinions, behind the Super14's up n unders and IPL's super salaries, dig to find and you will meet the humble coach Sir Hunt and captain Bongani Khumalo spearheading the Supersport United's Celebrations after winning their second consecutive PSL title.


Women were gushing, men were trying to be cool and the R10 000 000 prize money made it very real that the M-Net staff who had come to see them n their trophy were mere minions to the system.



All in all, the most surprising and pleasing thing around the entire event was how humble, friendly and innocently self-confident SuperSport captain and Bafana star-of-the-future B. Khumalo thanked everyone involved and added a calm to a static crowd, similarly to how he calms a defense under the assault of an Ajax attack.

With each player pocketing well over R200k from the title win, and supporters meeting a sure thing for 2010, all is well in S.A football. Maybe ;)