9.Gordon Gekko:
9 Jan 2013, 12:33 pm @Slappes-6: Slappes – want to take over a suite at Ellis Park? Trade ins welcome – any Blackberry or Samsung Galaxy will do. Will consider tickets at the circus for a swap. No takers on Gumtree yet!

Ah, now it’s “take over the lease” and not “take over a suite” at Ellis Park?…

Shifting the goalposts are we?

I’ll take you up on that offer.

A lame Russian side klapped by the University of Johannesburg this past week is hardly competition for a Lions C-Grade side, but merely a philanthropic exhibition game to show what?
Where is a World Invitational Team – where is a Barbarians side – where is a Top 14 side as the two French sides the Lions are playing CAN commit to a holiday in the sun in Jhb as Mont de Marson & Agen are bottom of the log.
Every single “foreign” team playing at Ellis Park and there are 8 of them as Samoa is being brought out by SARU so the Lions have slipped in a game at “no cost” represents a R3m bill.
That is R24m that the Lions have to pony up to stage a comical Lions Challenge that means nothing to no one.
There is no log,
there is no trophy,
there are no rules,
there is no prize money,
there is nothing on offer to call this a Challenge, which is a trumped up farce by any other name.
It shows that the Lions are attempting to go through the motions and is an insult to the fans (what’s left), the suite holders, season ticket holders, sponsors and players.
The Lions have gone from a proud rugby union to a circus side show act and even this is wee wee poor.

Also teams like the Cheetahs built their success when they appeared in 4 Currie Cup finals in a row, winning 2 and drawing 1 by treading the fine line of the law by holding a player in the tackle exactly the right length of time that the tackled player would get penalized for holding onto the ball. That was until the laws were changed. Then they were stuffed.

Of course Rassie Erasmus’s and uber gomgat Muller’s creative interpretation and illegal use of their front row forward reserves was often overlooked too. In virtually every game the Cheetahs played – their second ranked front rower in a specific position would come on for 15 minutes (just enough to give their first choice guy a breather) and then get ‘injured’ so their first choice guy could come back on.

Heck – when the Cheetahs were getting scrummed off the field, their entire front row compliment use to get injured in a matter of 10 minutes, forcing uncontested scrums. Biggest cheats – the altar boys from Bloem. It was so obvious it became laughable.

But – you have to take your hat off to them. They did it in such a way that very few people picked up on it. Or at least – everyone turned a blind eye to it.

Funny – I wrote a long e-mail to the IRB on these two issues referring to specific times in about 6 games in one Currie Cup year. Believe it or not I got referred to Andre Watson who actually wrote quite a long e-mail in response to my query, vociferously defending the referee who I believe was that d$$khead, Willie Roos. I am not saying it was my e-mail but next season the law was changed. Do you know what year that was ?

It was the year that suddenly the Cheetahs stopped doing so well.

Coincidence ?

All teams cheat – some just better than others and some have gained massive successes by being good at playing the laws like a fiddle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsP3Y1dDcb0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVuomr8zebg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv-RkRr0HtE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkgkSRcjWAY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdr-W775hk4

With 20 or so clubs, not many registered players.

But I like what the Lions are doing.

Only a matter of time.