Back Boks, but drop contrived patriotism
5 Sep 2011
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day column, says it’s time for Springbok supporters to grow up and stop being so blindly patriotic.
I only hope the Boks get a welcome back to SA that equals their send-off for the World Cup in New Zealand — regardless of whether they defend their trophy.
I know it won’t happen because the support offered to the Boks is conditional — as it was with Bafana Bafana at last year’s Soccer World Cup and the Proteas when it came to the Cricket World Cup.
It really is time the South African rugby supporter grew up, matured and enjoyed the pleasures of the game — win or lose. As one All Black told a Springbok: ‘The difference between us and you is that we are passionate; you guys are just plain angry.’
Too many South African supporters still define their manhood through the Boks’ success; equally their inadequacy as guilt-ridden South Africans who lived off the advantages of being white in apartheid SA .
We South Africans are a popular bunch these days. The Boks were loved in Paris in 2007. Their supporters were welcomed and Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom meant a very comfortable walk anywhere in the world for South Africans. But South Africans need to accept that they’re in vogue and part of their being fashionable is that youngsters now travel, aren’t forced into post-matric conscription service and are encouraged to think for themselves.
They are taught that it is cooler and more rewarding to live for a cause than to die for one. South Africans are part of the global village and no longer looking in from a distance.
We are in a new age and should be capable of making our own decisions, of engaging in debate and dealing with what is an illusion and what is real.
It is the contrived patriotism in 2011 that irks me most when it comes to our national sporting teams. The reminder that at the moment every Friday is Bok Friday, just as we did with the cricketers at the World Cup and Bafana Bafana in last year’s Soccer World Cup.
Supporters of SA’s national teams should wear their teams’ respective colours because it is the obvious and natural thing to do. It shouldn’t need a reminder. It shouldn’t need drummed-up public relations and media hysteria to convince South African supporters that the only way to offer support is through blind optimism and wearing a Bok jersey on Friday.
It certainly doesn’t help that, given SA ’s militant and troubled past, the analogy of war is always the first association to any of our sporting teams’ campaigns. Or violence.
The sports minister’s send-off to the Boks, urging them to ‘moer hulle’, was as embarrassing as it was disgusting. It played to an audience we associate with a shamed past; not with an invigorating future.
He didn’t say outsmart them and dazzle them with your skill and your innovation. Some would say he couldn’t because that would be lying.
This ‘moer hulle’ apparently makes the minister a supporter of the Boks, just like wearing green and screaming ‘go green’ makes one a supporter.
Nonsense. The supporter is the one who is going to be at the arrivals hall whether or not the Boks come back with that yellow cup the Aussies famously dubbed Bill.
The true supporter will also ask questions, have doubts and have a belief based on information. The blind patriotism I so detest also comes with the ignorance of everyone believing that the Boks will win the competition because they are the Boks.
I don’t believe SA will win the competition. This is not to say they can’t win it. But New Zealand and Australia are better teams, whose players are more skilled and innovative.
No northern hemisphere team will win the trophy because neither France nor England currently have the players that make up a champion team. The victors will come from one of the southern hemisphere big three, and the favourites have to be hosts New Zealand, who are seeded to meet defending champions SA in the semi-final.
This will be SA’s most demanding World Cup and the greatest rugby challenge for those players who will defend the tag of champions. It is one thing to claim the crown; quite another to wear it.
Winning the World Cup in New Zealand will rank as the greatest achievement in Springbok history. That is how huge the task is. Support them, bleed green and scream green.
But do it with the knowledge that not only would a Bok victory be monumental, it would also defy history. No team have defended the World Cup and no Bok team have won against New Zealand in Auckland since 1937.
Embrace the romance of these Boks being history makers. But don’t take it personally or be shocked if your heart gets broken before 23 October.
713 Comments
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6 Sep 2011, 02:52 am
@LITELOCK(LITELOCK)-700:
‘gaff’ is UK-speak for ‘house/home’. Ive recently returned from living abroad after a decade or nearly-2.
Im in the seafood industry. Im a sea’in some scallops at the moment, and they smell reeeeeeal good too.
I’ll let you know.
6 Sep 2011, 02:58 am
Being from Nelson i’ve done the Seafood lark.Worked for Talleys and Amatal.If you bump into Pete Bennett at Egmont Seafoods tell him Wazza says hi
6 Sep 2011, 03:07 am
@LITELOCK(LITELOCK)-702:
that was delicious, I’ll have you know. A hint of chilli and fresh lime juice goes down a treat.
My ‘seafood’ ref was just a little now-joke. Im an ex-lawyer, current part time blogger baiter. Or atleast thats what they keep telling me.
and business is
GOOOOD !
better go, my lunchdate is finally here. *hic*
6 Sep 2011, 03:12 am
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-703: Lawyer…….*shivers* i feel kinda dirty…..lol
6 Sep 2011, 05:18 am
Congratulations Keo, this is probably the best article you have ever posted.
Good on you for bringing patriotism to the fore.
6 Sep 2011, 06:33 am
Keohane. It’s a good article. You make a lot of good points, but I’d hardly call Springbok supporters ‘blindly patriotic’. If anything they are the opposite. Willing to slander the Springbok team at every corner. Never happy regardless. Always finding fault. It’s sickening.
Also you take the Sports Ministers comment ‘moer hulle’ a bit too serious. He wasn’t telling them to actually do so. He was saying come over to New Zealand and give it your best. But you easily found fault with that?! I mean really. What is wrong with the Sports Minister drawing on that emotion from the average Springbok supporter? I wouldn’t have found his speech nearly as supportive if he’d said “Go over there and dazzle them”.
I can see why Harmse has it easier then you Keo lot. He’s an actual journalist. And when he writes opinion articles, he is subjective and also looks for the positives. You lot seem so sure we are going to lose. I’ll have that humble pie ready for you at Auckland airport. Won’t help much though because next year you lot will behave the same way.
6 Sep 2011, 08:55 am
Sorry Keo…bit of a hit and miss here I reckon… So many of your statements are just plain false.
I would struggle to find ANYONE who simply thinks the boks will win this tournament because they are ‘the boks’. Everyone knows that this bok team is capable of winning the world cup. As has every bok team thats gone to a world cup (except for 2003). There are doubts in everyones minds that we can retain it. The knowledge that the boks are capable..less the doubts that we are good enough to retain it leaves us with one thing. Hope. Hope is not blind patriotism. Hope is just something that all real sports fans have, and that they should all rightly have.
You seem to have totally lost sight of what it is to support ones country. A fan is not supposed to analyse like a supersport pundit. We are not 55 million Naas Botha’s, sitting at hope scrutinizing every technical aspect of the games. We are Springbok fans urging our team to win.
The Boks are representing us as South Africans. Appreciate them for what they are, and what they are good at. At the end of the day, they are doing their best, in crappy circumstances with a crappy coach.
Get your head out your @rse and get on board I say…
6 Sep 2011, 08:57 am
Keo is ‘n regte drol ‘n die drink water, and he should be flushed.
6 Sep 2011, 19:25 pm
Mark,
Listen mate, most days you make sense, but I have followed you long enough to see what’s going on here. I’t's called a hit quota.
Every now and then you put out some utter tripe, knowing that it will piss everyone off.
You know as well as any of us sport is all that South Africans have to feel proud about. Living in SA would be wonderful if it weren’t for the people. Every day South Africans have to deal with crime, corruption and other non-governmental criminals too.
Springbok fans have this reputation of being racist – something that you often tap into for your quota hits. On Saturday my wife caught be crying watching the Sharks. She knows that I despise the Sharks and asked why. I told her to watch Sibusisu Sithole and Lwazi mVovo. There is nothing contrived about either of them. They are not there for reason other than they are VERY GOOD rugby players. I told her how beautiful it is now that there are good black rugby players like that in SA. All South Africans can feel included in South African Rugby.
We don’t have wars. We don’t have great lifestyle anymore. All that we have are world class sportsmen.
By the way, in my wildest dreams the Boks would play like my Cheetahs do. But the truth is that the Cheetahs only win the Currie Cup when they play dour rugby. In 2004 I didn’t care how it happened, all that mattered was that my team won. They moer’d hulle.
6 Sep 2011, 21:23 pm
@YoMama(YoMama)-709: THAT is a very well written response and I for one thoroughly support the view. Intelligent, emotional, objective and entirely without malice. A collective that is sadly lacking around here and most particularly in our sad country. Of course there are exceptions but they are few.
7 Sep 2011, 04:08 am
@YoMama(YoMama)-709:
Most excellent.
7 Sep 2011, 08:45 am
Excellent article.
These Boks, this coach and administration, simply don’t deserve the win.
They play dull, boring, destructive rugby that is a horrible advertisment for the game on a global stage and for future young players.
We’ve seen a generation of talented Bok backs be completed wasted and turned into intercept kings and kick chasers.
A complete hiding at the hands of the ab’s or aussies would hopefully finally provide the impetus to change this style of play and actually use the incredibly talented and brilliant backs we have.
8 Sep 2011, 06:23 am
@YoMama(YoMama)-709: Excellent response.
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