Contract killer
14 Dec 2010
MARK KEOHANE, writing in SA Rugby magazine, says Lionel Mapoe has screwed the system.
Lionel Mapoe got what he wanted, which was a ticket out of Bloemfontein. But it was the way that he did it that sucks and betrays his immense talent on a rugby field.
A year ago Mapoe’s omission from the Springbok squad to tour Europe was more baffling than some of the selections. Mapoe was the form winger in South Africa. He appeared the dream selection: young, big, fast and bloody well black. It was as if God had gift-wrapped the complete package for the Springbok selectors who did as they tend to do with the logical and the obvious: they ignored Mapoe, who didn’t need an international tour to stay in the news. If only we were talking about this athlete for the right reasons.
I always imagined the first column I’d write about Mapoe would be in celebration of what he was doing in a Springbok jersey, but before he gets there he would probably have spent some time in every provincial union and probably not have played a game for any of them.
Mapoe, for whatever reason, was unhappy at the Cheetahs and decided the Sharks were his future. The Sharks, never shy to import from the Free State, which is South African professional rugby’s greatest feeder system, did not need a second phone call from Mapoe or his agent.
An injury ended Mapoe’s season and he was off to the Sharks. That he had a contract with the Cheetahs seemed nothing more than an irritation to the player and Mapoe’s rehabilitation proceeded in Durban while the Cheetahs threatened legal action.
The Cheetahs, the punching bag of South African professional rugby when it comes to losing talent to wealthier provinces, were always going to lose because even if a court ruled in favour of the union, all Cheetahs coach Naka Drotské would be left with was a player who had all the talent to be a superstar for the union but no desire to be true to that talent.
Mapoe wanted out and the Sharks were happy to oblige in taking a player still under contract. So when Mapoe walked out on the Sharks a month ago and joined the Lions after the Cheetahs and Lions administration had exchanged notes and put the squeeze on the Sharks, there wasn’t a whole lot of sympathy for the Sharks.
This, though, isn’t about the Sharks, the Cheetahs or the Lions. It isn’t about who is right or wrong and who acted in good faith. It isn’t about who has the moral high ground or whether the Sharks’ lawyers feel there was a loophole in Mapoe’s contract. It certainly isn’t about whether the Cheetahs and Lions feel common ground has been reached and that both unions and the player start 2011 as winners. It is about the absolute disregard shown by yet another player for a signed contract. What does a signature mean to Mapoe? Where is the integrity?
Every year players talk about the lack of professionalism among certain administrators. Players privately bemoan the incompetence of these amateurs who control their professions in the guise of CEOs. But what of the player who screws the system and does a dirty on his own integrity in the process? What a mess.
I have no sympathy for Mapoe or any player who walks out on a deal in which he has committed his name to paper. There is honour in a name and the assumption has always been there is honour in a signature.
Mapoe will get better as a player working with Lions and former All Blacks coach John Mitchell. He will break tackles, make tackles and score tries in next year’s Super Rugby tournament, but nothing he does on the field can disguise his lack of integrity off it.
The Lions must enjoy Mapoe’s talent while they have him, but they shouldn’t be surprised if he’s in Pretoria or Cape Town in February, given his track record.
If you let a player in through the back door then expect him to leave the same way.
– This first appeared in the December issue of SA Rugby magazine.
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180 Comments
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14 Dec 2010, 17:18 pm
@fsjakes : I only used O’Connor as an example to illustrate how absurd it would be to expect a player like him to stay on a Junior contract, simply because he was a Junior. Because that’s what you’re expecting us to accept for Mapoe. The minute his play progresses beyond “talented youngster & one for the future”, his price tag should go up. It didn’t, because Verster is a cheap b@stard.
14 Dec 2010, 17:18 pm
Trans
Are you talking about the tea and sugar leaving my house or Lionel leaving flowerfountain?
14 Dec 2010, 17:22 pm
@fsjakes : i don’t know if mapoe played craven week or saschools but he played in the same u20 team as ebersohn in 2008, played in the same Sevens team and entered the Currie Cup around the same time as Ebersohn and had a bigger impact for the Cheetahs.
Surely Ebersohn’s contract CANNOT be that vastly dissimilar to Lionel’s.
14 Dec 2010, 17:24 pm
@Transformation :
it means they are proven performers who have commanded starting positions in campaigns throughout their careers.
certainly evaluated over more than 12 games anyway.
14 Dec 2010, 17:27 pm
Mark….unfortunately integrity is not an enforcable legal term. Unless it is specifically defined. Thats why I prefer dogs to people their loyalty is so much stronger and if you help them they will love you forever for doing so. Humans on the other hand….have become a very strange creature indeed. Our value systems are shot to hell.
14 Dec 2010, 17:29 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl : 154 the Blue Bulls initially valued Lionel at 1.4 million but didn’t sign him because he was contracted to the Cheetahs, good on them. upon knowing his “market value” the Cheetahs expected Lionel to stick around for less?
Rudolph Straueli was reported to have approached the Ebersohn boys to go to the Sharks, do you think they settled for the pittance Lionel was offered?
14 Dec 2010, 17:32 pm
@gunther : maevis is not a crook!
14 Dec 2010, 17:36 pm
@Transformation :
but just 3 months prior to all this Lionel was thrilled to be signed with the cheetahs at all….when no other union was interested in him.
don’t you think there is something unethical in there somewhere?
14 Dec 2010, 17:49 pm
Transie
Maevis is merely an exponent of art of the allocation of resources.
My resources are allocated to her pantry
She banks on me not saying anything because she thinks I feel guilty about apartheid.
14 Dec 2010, 18:02 pm
@Transformation : Mapoe did play Craven Week and yes, he did play in the same SA u/20 and sevens team as Robert. But, Robert made a much bigger impact than Mapoe at age group level and at sevens.
Robert also made his CC debut & S14 debuts a year earlier than Mapoe. Mapoe only joined the senior squad during the 2009 CC season. Robert played for the CC side in the 2008 CC, as well as 2009 S14 season. So, he actually made his the step up earlier than Mapoe. The reason being that he had a bigger impact at agre group level.
The other player from the Cheetahs who actually followed the same path as Robert and had a bigger impact than Mapoe was Wilton Peters. He also played for all same sides as the other two, and was promoted at same time as Robert. Unfortunately he had a serious, potetially career ending accident. He is currently also contracted with the Lions.
I will however agree with you that Mapoe did have a bigger impact when he did get his chance at senior level.
But, to come back:
You cannot fault the Cheetahs for their junior contract of Mapoe.
If you want to fault the Cheetahs you can the fact that he played half a CC season for the senior side while still on a junior contract. This was also the basis the on which Mapoe built his defence in the court cases, which he both lost. So legally, it was not wrong. But, you can definitely argue the moral side of that.
The turn side of this is: If the Cheetahs did not have the monet to up his salary immidiately (as they claimed), they should not have promoted him to the senior side. He should have finished the season as a u/21 player and when the Cheetahs finally did find the necessary sponsorship, only then should they have promoted him to the senior side.
If this was done, Mapoe would not even have been known by anyone (including you) at the end of last year. I also wonder what Mapoe would have chosen if he was given the choice?
I guess one can also question the Cheetahs R 750 000 contract they offered him. Unfortunately, this type of arguement will based on opinion. I, however, believe that there is an arguement to be made for players having to give back to unions who were willing to take a ris when no one else wanted you. Even if you think your value is incrased 100 000%.
14 Dec 2010, 18:05 pm
@fsjakes : Sorry for the many grammer mistakes… was in a rush
14 Dec 2010, 18:17 pm
Wait till Mapoe gets an overseas offer from Toulon or Racing at the end of next year for eur 1 million for 3 years and the whole sorry saga begins again.
Don’t try and tell me that it hasn’t crossed his mind.
He’s out to find his true worth alright.
14 Dec 2010, 18:26 pm
@I am a stormer : They wouldn’t pay him nearly that much. He’s not there yet, that’s what really gets me. He’s acting like Frans Steyn but without 30-odd Springbok Caps and a Wc gold medal.
In fact as said here, only 12 First class games.
Ridiculous.
14 Dec 2010, 18:27 pm
@gunther : guilt tripped into partying ways with your groceries?
hahaha serves you right
14 Dec 2010, 18:32 pm
@stormersboy :
I was just being facetious.
But now that he’s got a decent contract, it’s up to Mapoe to deliver from his side and put in some stellar performances.
14 Dec 2010, 18:33 pm
Transie
She thinks I have guilt.
Meanwhile I’m just nice guy
14 Dec 2010, 18:40 pm
Very interesting thread and comments.
I can safely say as a Stormers fan, that Mapoe is a money grabbing unscrupulous barsteward* who has bitten the hand who fed him twice (Sharks and Cheetahs) and will no doubt do the same to the Lions at some stage.
* unless of course he comes to the Stormers. Then of course I will take the same stance taken by all other supporters of the various unions have taken at various stages throughout this saga, and will say he is an all round good guy fighting for the rights of the oppressed everywhere.
14 Dec 2010, 18:45 pm
at the Lions I’d rather have Michael Killian and Mjekevu on the wings than Mapoe.
14 Dec 2010, 19:02 pm
Forget Mapoe, the Lions as a whole concerns me.
Seems they want to buy their way out of **** and for me it is not sustainable.
You build a team, you don’t buy one.
14 Dec 2010, 19:14 pm
@PissAnt :
True. You can end up with a dressing room full of over paid ego’s. Look at Man City.
14 Dec 2010, 19:25 pm
@JockBok : @PissAnt :
Think of the Transvaal ‘Dream machine’ cricket team of the 80′s. It took more than a decade to come right and become some sort of force in cricket again.
The Titans were the beneficiaries of the myopic stance of Transvaal cricket and have had the upper hand ever since.
Cheque book sides invariably don’t work.
14 Dec 2010, 19:27 pm
@I am a stormer :
Don’t even go that far back, look at the Bulls, it was built over time.
Only way this can work, is if they select a very strong captain, the likes they had last in Francois Pienaar.
14 Dec 2010, 20:00 pm
@fsjakes : you make a lot of baseless assumptions, first among those is the claim that i wouldn’t know lionel if he wasn’t played in the cc by the cheetahs when i told you earlier that lionel played in the u20 with the likes of ebersohn, duvenhage, frankie hougaard, koster etc…
14 Dec 2010, 20:50 pm
Why this long meaningless discussion about a 2nd rate province? Waste of databundles farken lions.
14 Dec 2010, 21:37 pm
@PissAnt : why should the Sharks be the only Real Madrid of SARugby? let the lions get frabchise pillars and THEN build around them…is there one foolproof universal way to build a rugby team?
14 Dec 2010, 22:59 pm
Of the three unions involved in this saga the Lions followed the correct protocol/procedures but it is the Lions being hammered in many posts. Can’t help but get the impression that some already fear what the Lions are about to become under Mitchell. The days of roll-over-Lions are over boys. They showed against the Sharks and Stormers in the second half of the CC what can be expected in 2011. The Lions will henceforth do unto others what others have done unto them … and that won’t go down well here I know. Lions bashing here will become the norm as it won’t be that easy on the field anymore. Bring it on!!!
14 Dec 2010, 23:23 pm
@Katsesnor : awesome my man….can only be good for sa rugby!!
15 Dec 2010, 12:49 pm
@Katsesnor :
When everyone is bashing you it means you’re important and they fear you.
Hence the reason why the Bulls, Sharks, Boks and New Zealanders are spoken about so often.
15 Dec 2010, 18:24 pm
@>^..^< katman : Jou ma is ‘n cheap b@stard
17 Dec 2010, 07:12 am
@Katsesnor :
The Lions took advantage of the love triangle between Sharks, Mapoe and FS which is fair enough in business.
However whilst their hands may be legally clean they are not clean.
It seems the negotiation took place between the Lions new investors and Mapoe in the flat the Sharks paid for when Mapoe had been given leave by the Sharks to visit his family in the Eastern Cape.
Unfortunately some dirt rubs off.
Make no mistake the Sharks beef is with Mapoe and not the Lions.
Hope they sue him.
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