No matter which way you paint this, SA Rugby lacks leadership.
The whole sequence of events that has led up to the blanket ban on all contracted Springboks is nothing short of ridiculous.
Forget the fact or the reason for instituting this ridiculous ban which in itself, is the most childish thing I have seen from all parties involved (unions and SA Rugby), the fact that all the dirty laundry between SARPA and SA Rugby are now being hung out in the media with both parties attacking and trying to state their side of the story through one media release to the next tells you all you need to know about the leadership, or serious lack of it we have in rugby in South Africa.
Has any of these guys heard of a telephone? Hell as far as I know Vodacom is one of the title sponsor of all things rugby in South Africa I am sure they could have helped these so-called administrators getting in touch with each other to sort this out like adults!
The plain and simple fact of the matter is however that this situation could have been nipped in the butt from the very start.
Apparently the sequence of events went like this;
- SA Rugby has telephone conference with all unions affected by their planned rest for certain Boks.
- Union A and/or B voice their dissatisfaction with one or two decisions.
- SA Rugby then uses schoolyard bully tactics and says; ‘Well then we pull out all the players, so weh weh’.
- SARPA gets calls from players who are in desperate need of game time and/or rest and concerned that this will adversely affect them.
- SARPA calls on SA Rugby to reconsider the blanket ban and reasons with player concerns.
- SA Rugby comes out and says it’s not their problem, SARPA and players knew of this proposed rest period months ago.
In the end, everyone loses, especially the players.
What SA Rugby fails to seemingly understand is that what was proposed months ago changed completely with the recent decision and in fact, SA Rugby did not honour their commitments to the players with this decision.
Now we can be pissed off at the unions who again acted like petulant little children whose ice-cream fell in the sand-pit at the play-park, but the fact remains that SA Rugby, if they had any sense of leadership would have told any union bitching to go an stick it where the sun do not shine and that the purpose of this rest periods were in the interest of the PLAYERS, not the UNIONS.
But why do that?
It is obviously much more fun to act like the schoolyard bully than to show any common sense or leadership.
The players have every right to be concerned because at the end of the day it is only them, and effectively Springbok rugby that suffers.
What the recent media ping-pong battle between so-called administrators have clearly shown all of us however is that there are far too many ego’s at work within SA Rugby, and no-one with the balls to actually lead.
Perhaps these administrators should remember that they are there because of the players, and not to have dick-measuring contests with one another. Perhaps it is time some of these people get off their asses and actually lead for a change.
Good read Morne, as always..
I have to agree with you, its rather childish, and I really enjoyed your school ground comparison.
Getting a little hot under the collar?
. Reckon Letgo will have something to say about your final paragraph, bless her 
i accept the argument that they knew about if since July. obviously individual players would not know whether they would need rest or game time in 2 months time. However, somebody should have predicted that this may be the case and the talks should have started then.
What’s more worrying than the obvious lack of leadership is the VERY obvious lack of plain common sense.
How is it possible that players like Beast and Bismarck need conditioning? Haven’t the morons in charge watched any of the Sharks games of late? If they had they would have seen in Beast and Bismarck two of the best conditioned players in SA, who are playing some of the best rugby in a long time.
The reason probably is because they had much needed rest (luckily or unluckily) forced on them by injury. Now they’re back and need game time, not fucking conditioning.
Why can anyone with half a brain cell see this and not the retards at SARU? Oh wait, maybe I’ve just anwered my own question.
players should also remember that tehy have an employer who pays their salaries – just an observation.
@rhineshark (Comment 4) : remember not all sharks games are televised so this is quite possible
@rekinek (back to rugby) (Comment 6) : :
Hahaha!
Thank God tonight’s is
Perhaps these administrators should remember that they are there because of the players, and not to have dick-measuring contests with one another.
Well if Verster was in the measuring contest then he’d win hands down. He is a dick from head to toe.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 8) :
Hahaha!!
Sometimes, just sometimes, it’s good when you have no national players in your side
The fact is SA Rugby do this on an almost weekly basis.
They are completely and utterly retro-active. They wait for the sh#t to hit the fan before switching it off.
Week after week they are apologising for this, denying that.
It appears that PDivvy is only the ring master. But we’re talking about a three ring circus here and the clowns are running the show.
This is a strong brand being eroded by poor management and communication.
@Greg (Comment 10) : Brilliant!
It would seem that Morne is slightly pissed off this morning.
Good on you mate…tell it like it is.
@robdylan (Comment 2) : It’s either that or the old avatar back
@Greg (Comment 10) : ya – what about creating a completely separate side – spribngboks and their players only play for this site. There would obviously be movement of players.
thet would be soo nicely weird.
@Greg (Comment 10) : That might change during the EOYT.
@robdylan (Comment 2) : Morne seems to be a little upset!!!
…
I think he wrote a really good article, sometimes its good to show a little emotion and he didn’t over do it.
BTW…I think we all agree with you Morne.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 8) :
BWAHAHAHAHAHA
@robdylan (Comment 2) : @rhineshark (Comment 4) : rhineshark is also upset!!!
He’s not handling it as well as Morne is.
@Pokkel (Comment 16) : And hopefully will, but currently we don’t have to worry about whether our players are available or not, whether they have to go off on a conditioning program and miss out on game time, and we also don’t have to worry about returning players fitting back into the structures come play-off time, should we get there. EYOT is a different kettle of fish, no local rugby then.
It’s a pity that some unions think they can only be competitive in a watered down version of the Currie Cup.
They risk making the it completely meaningless.