Transforming the way we think
15 Oct 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in his Business Day newspaper column, writes that the story of the Kings should be about hope and not ridicule.
The South African Rugby Union has never believed in the Eastern Cape as anything but an irritation to professional rugby but also a corporate cash cow in the name of development.
If any within the current administration refutes this then I challenge them to publicly apologise to the region for the way in which entry to Super Rugby was finalised and to apologise for making the Kings hated among a certain sector of provincial South African fan because they replaced a South African team, in the form of the Lions.
Saru’s apathy to the Eastern Cape needs to consistently be challenged. It has always been this way since professionalism in 1996. Saru, when convenient, uses the Eastern Cape as the missing link to a rugby rainbow nation but those with the responsibility within Saru have never had the heart and intent to make it the link. Instead all love for the Eastern Cape has been commercially and politically motivated.
It is disgusting. It has always been disgusting. It won’t easily change.
The Kings, on Super Rugby entry, should have been the good-news story of unity. It should have been fully endorsed because in a united rainbow nation it is very necessary to have a team from within the Eastern Cape in Super Rugby’s biggest southern hemisphere tournament. The Kings, representative of rugby in the Eastern Cape, should have been the missing link to show the game has finally transformed, not in black playing numbers, but by way of the thinking among administrators, supporters and the media in South Africa.
The backlash, resentment and resistance to the Kings suggests there is more than one link missing in a united South Africa and a united South African rugby structure.
Equally disturbing is how so many supporters refuse to see the significance of the Eastern Cape within the context of a healthy professional South African rugby international presence.
The administration has never surprised me. They have neither the intellectual capital nor the charisma (as individuals or a collective) to inspire. The game’s growth needs pioneers and instead the conveyer belt only produces pensioners, if not by age then certainly by way of enthusiasm and aspiration.
The administration of South African rugby has allowed for an emotional distaste for the Kings among supporters that is misplaced.
The Kings have not replaced the Lions in Super Rugby. They were given introduction to the tournament in place of the South African team that has been the worst performer in Super Rugby in 2012. Not historically, but only this year.
The Lions supporters really have to blame their players, coaches and the Lions administration that the Lions were the ones to make way. The Lions were the architects of their own demise, however temporary it may be.
Saru’s leadership, throughout the last year, have allowed for the resentment from those supporters to fester into something ugly. Not once has a voice within Saru preached perspective and done it with conviction. The platitudes have been that the Kings would play Super Rugby because it was best for South African rugby; that the decision was about transformation and had to be made.
What a cop out.
Transformation is in the way we should be thinking, not in how many black friends we have or how many black players the provincial or regional or national coach selects.
Transformation should be about the right kind of change and not change for the sake of change.
The Kings, as an entity, should have reflected the change of thinking in South African rugby but it has only reinforced how little has changed in the thinking within the game in this country.
Alan Solomons, formerly as EP head coach and now director of rugby, has done an unrivalled job with the EP Kings when you unemotionally consider what he has transformed about Eastern Province rugby in the last four years.
Those who disagree with me will do so on emotion and by way of not having been privy to the transformation, as a rugby entity, from four years ago.
Before you rant and accuse me of being on the Kings payroll, take a drive or get on bus, train or plane and sit with Solomons and do your own analysis of what has been achieved over the last four years.
There is so much vitriol aimed at the Kings because of Saru’s refusal to endorse change and absolute conviction that Sanzar would accommodate a sixth South African team.
The vitriol should be at those who govern our game, not the Kings, who on Saturday won the Currie Cup First Division in a titanic struggle against the Pumas.
To borrow from an American president, those within South African rugby should ask not what the Kings can do for them but more what Saru, as the custodians of the game in this country, could have done for the Kings.
Currently they have done nothing but set them up for Super Rugby failure and sadly they’ve hoodwinked so many supporters to embrace the prospect of this failure because they’ve made the Kings the bad guy, the Lions the fall guy and stood tall as the good guy.
Think about it …
942 Comments
Pages: « 1 … 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 [19] Show All
16 Oct 2012, 00:06 am
@whatever-891: who knows who be giving and who be collecting .. these little cleverdicks are not nearly as clever as they try and make out.
16 Oct 2012, 00:06 am
@wnbb-898: Yes… you shittingyourpants right now, eh?
16 Oct 2012, 00:07 am
@victoriabok-899:
He’s the guy on the beach selling lollies to make you jolly.
16 Oct 2012, 00:07 am
@wnbb-898:
SHARKS LOVER having a heavy schedule tonight….
16 Oct 2012, 00:08 am
@victoriabok-883: Yoh… That farks the cat once and for all… Game set match.
16 Oct 2012, 00:09 am
@Liewe Luiperd-897: why don’t you identify yourself coward.. who be you.. wooden spoon or the other one premenstrual at dawn? which?
16 Oct 2012, 00:10 am
@phil72-904: Not nearly as heavy as that Pielneus panting…
Ne Kweerboom?
16 Oct 2012, 00:12 am
@phil72-900:
Nahh, you heard it wrong, your sister was rooted in the Bluff, six Zamaleks and half a Durban poison Zol and the guys pulled a train on her
16 Oct 2012, 00:13 am
@victoriabok-899: ” scratchmarks on your chest “…. Hellsteeth
Pfffft…
BWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHAAAAAAAAAA
16 Oct 2012, 00:13 am
@phil72-904: Looks like it.He is afterall the president of the sharks supporters club.
16 Oct 2012, 00:15 am
@victoriabok-908: Shitabrick…
I bow down…
Shock and awe
16 Oct 2012, 00:16 am
@victoriabok-908: I see that you are trying your best…..but you still have to go through Slover for acceptance into the guppy den.
16 Oct 2012, 00:17 am
Good nite to all the Varkies… but take it easy on Sharks Lover… there are a lot of you but only one of him. Draw matches, fight or whatever it is you girls do
16 Oct 2012, 00:17 am
Victoria,you probably will give tonight a pass because Sl already knocked on heavens door tonight.
16 Oct 2012, 00:20 am
Keo is in the gutter. again.
how lame is this blog these days. round round round sallow shallow triping insults.
pull yourselves together.
Keo, why don’t you give Debbie a buzz to do another snapshot??
16 Oct 2012, 00:20 am
@wnbb-912:
Nope, we respect each other
After all only the Bulls and Sharks backed the Lions
You lot voted for the Kings, probably thought “Cheeky” is short for “Spread that cheek a bietjie” and thought you might get lucky one day
16 Oct 2012, 00:21 am
Sweet *****
Sometimes Keo
i dont know why you dont have a moderator here and remove 90% of this “facebook” filth these dumb saffas write on here like a bunch of tiny school kids who have dropped lip. But then again, who would want to moderate this pathetic poo that these uneducated kids are writing? Imagine beening that chap, I would pitty him. Just shows, beautifully, the actual mentality level of saffas— really effing stupid, so stupid its pathetic. God bless the future of SA noting recently SA loosing billions of $’s in foreign investment over the next decade thanks to the country’s situation. It aint looking pretty from an outside prospective of the future of SA !!!!
Sounds like half of u’s think you are funny with this pathetic nonsence written here. A rugby website filled with “facebook”/ “twitter” filth. What a sad bunch of looses. Why would u’s bother to waiste your energy to reply to someone who has unkind things to say, whats the point? There’s not a single rugby website that comes remotely close to this blogger filt…
Yea Keo, SKings should have been a complete non white team.
That way “true transformation” would be implemented. Obviously it needs to start at grass root level, but the SKings would have been a great stepping stone in the path to “true transformation”. I think thats the big shame in SA rugby.
16 Oct 2012, 00:21 am
@phil72-913: Yeah.All want a piece of the president,but it seems hg got the inside lane.cheers.on my way also,so will leave old hg and victoria to their own devices.
16 Oct 2012, 00:23 am
VicciePoshSpice is jou bloed nog steeds wit?
Weet jy dat dit ‘n witbloedsel kanker kan wees?
Die oorsprong is ‘n ‘leucopaenia’ en dit meen te veel witselle
Maar jy is mos nou in daai wit sel, Kanada, nie waar nie?
16 Oct 2012, 00:24 am
kom ons trek mekaar se ketting
the class. the intelligence. the snickers. hôhôho.
16 Oct 2012, 00:24 am
@Heavens Game-911:
On the positive side his nephews will be half Sharks, they will play rugby and run with the ball but unfortunately would still say “Ouchee” when tackled
16 Oct 2012, 00:27 am
@victoriabok-921: Still chuckling… A sledging thread par excellence…
Watchout… ET on your tail now… Snail trail everywhere.
Sheezus… A classic
16 Oct 2012, 00:27 am
@Mostofyou-919:
Ja ou sekelsel, jy praat nogsteeds baie tos nê?
Jy bly mos so oor die verlede kla, miskien moet jy môre op die Hollanders se sokker site en op die Engelse s’n gaan moan oordat hulle die Kaap gekoloniseer
16 Oct 2012, 00:29 am
@Heavens Game-922: Twas fun… Bed time… Over and out…
16 Oct 2012, 00:31 am
@Heavens Game-922:
> Watchout… ET on your tail now…
Nah, the expat struggle hero is a lot of things but he’s not into men
> Snail trail everywhere
A bad case of the Philly Clap?
16 Oct 2012, 00:33 am
@Greenies-917:
hahaha, its infectious not so…………..you come on here to have a crack at some of the bloggers and then end up doing exactly the same thing…………..faaaak you are a doos………..must be a keeewee?
16 Oct 2012, 00:37 am
@Mostofyou-919:
> VicciePoshSpice is jou bloed nog steeds wit?
Nee, was nog altyd BLOU
MY BLOED IS BLOU
16 Oct 2012, 00:40 am
@Greenies-917:
> What a sad bunch of looses.
Looses???
> Why would u’s bother to waiste your energy
Waiste??
Why “waiste” your time here with the “looses”?
Fark off
16 Oct 2012, 00:43 am
@victoriabok-928:
add to that ………. “imagine beening that chap”
Educated muthafuker? Not
16 Oct 2012, 00:44 am
@whatever-929:
Maybe he dreams about “beening” that chap?
16 Oct 2012, 00:46 am
And there is only a few countries in the world where “u’s’ is used.
Inbred centipede!
16 Oct 2012, 00:47 am
mmmm, maybe I should have used are and not is…
16 Oct 2012, 01:27 am
@Heavens Game-843: It seems that you doesn’t like the criticism HG, otherwise why comment.
16 Oct 2012, 04:43 am
I’m a thread killer! But I can’t let 933 be the last comment due to the spelling/grammar mistake caused by my iPhone spell checker…
All blacks playing aus this weekend, effectively the start of our eoyt. When is the bok’s first game, and who against??
16 Oct 2012, 05:05 am
@corporal punishment-934:
Not sure if it is complete…
10/11/2012 England v Fiji Twickenham
10/11/2012 Ireland v South Africa Aviva Stadium
10/11/2012 France v Australia Stade de France
10/11/2012 Italy v Tonga Stadio Mario Rigamonti
10/11/2012 Wales v Argentina Millennium Stadium
11/11/2012 Scotland v New Zealand Murrayfield
16/11/2012 Wales v Samoa Millennium Stadium
17/11/2012 England v Australia Twickenham
17/11/2012 France v Argentina Metropole
17/11/2012 Italy v New Zealand Stadio Olimpico
17/11/2012 Scotland v South Africa Murrayfield
24/11/2012 Scotland v Tonga Pittodrie Stadium
24/11/2012 England v South Africa Twickenham
24/11/2012 Ireland v Argentina Aviva (Lansdowne)
24/11/2012 Italy v Australia Stadio “Artemio Franchi”
24/11/2012 Wales v New Zealand Millennium Stadium
24/11/2012 France v Samoa Stade de France
1/12/2012 England v New Zealand Twickenham
1/12/2012 Wales v Australia Millennium Stadium
16 Oct 2012, 12:00 pm
@Transformation-477:
jeez, how slimey can you get?
even by your own slippery standards?
turning a minority govt issue into an apartheid supporting one?
you showing your ill-concealed prejudice my umfaan.
16 Oct 2012, 14:09 pm
@917Greenies; absolutely but it seems a ‘typical” SA fronting deal with a white coach, CEO (Cheeky) and highest paid player (and his agent who trumpets transformation), all wit ou’s. Then ask for special dispensation so they can import foreign players!! It’s also a sad indictment of SA that the “transformation” that is mentioned so often but doesn’t exist under the microscope. Skande ekse.
As and aside, I belive that any discrinination based on skin colour is wrong in principal and will always lead to corruption. I rest my case; Speras are a good example.
16 Oct 2012, 15:33 pm
Amusing thread to read, I picture you all sitting in a circle strapped to your chairs firing verbal shots at each other and it becomes funnier.
In saying that, nothing wrong with going postal on here, better than going the physical route.
329@ I-love-u-bakkiesbotha…. If you sign the Anti Fracking petition and join you will receive a lot of information about it locally and internationally. They will send you emails about all the latest developments and keep you continually in the loop. Its a fracking abomination for our world yet the anal carbuncles will poison and destroy for their immediate ”wants”
16 Oct 2012, 15:42 pm
@charo-936: don’t fret ou decrepit one, i know you wouldn’t be able to “put yourself in the shoes” of the majority that had to take the brunt of the s.hit
the more you post the repulsive you get.
as you were.
16 Oct 2012, 15:44 pm
@charo-936: did you see the “silverback” serena win the US Open too? it was her fourth one, you and you “expat pommie” mates must’ve been really incensed HAHAHHAHAHHA
16 Oct 2012, 16:27 pm
@Transformation-939: @Transformation-940:
you seem a little wound up?
so much so that you need to twist a post to try to mean something else?
our regular little bullshitbertie on keo.
16 Oct 2012, 16:44 pm
@Treehugger-938:
will do thanks
unbridled capitalism will be the death of us all
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