Dragons delight at last
9 Feb 2013
Wales snapped an eight-match losing streak when they beat France 16-6 in Paris.
With the teams locked at 6-6, a dire Test came alive with seven minutes to go when a perfectly-weighted chip by flyhalf Dan Biggar was gathered by winger George North, who dived over in the left-hand corner.
Man of the Match Leigh Halfpenny slotted the touchline conversion and then added a penalty to consign France to their second defeat in this year’s Six Nations.
83 Comments
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9 Feb 2013, 20:48 pm
Rocking your rugby world.
6 Feb 2013
Players should be judged on performance and not the promise of performance. Selectors, coaches, media and supporters should lose their obsession with age and the restriction of four year cycles. If you read this to the end you could be the making of rugby’s revolution. To the brandy and coke okes don’t go beyond this point.
The introduction of the Rugby World Cup was to give one country official bragging rights to officially being called the best in the world. It grew quickly into a commerciaL beast whose appetite to be fed will only increase. It is no longer about bragging rights but about commerce and the supposed investment of the game in the future.
But those who appoint themselves as the architects of vision are merely enforcing the limitation of their vision on whoever is prepared to emulate what is deemed to be the best, when the innovators and inspirers are the ones who define success on creating and giving something unique, which is then interpreted by the chasing pack as the standard that invariably has to be matched. Unfortunately everyone wants to be the best but society’s stone-cast, yet non sensical, set of rules cater only for contradiction because while it caters for the mind to be aspirational it provides a greater immediate seduction and safety net for the mind to favour the short term comfort of conservatism.
Society’s selfish cavaliers are too often the ones reinforcing the reward and restriction that gives the majority the comfort that conservative is good because there is no risk but with cavalier could come failure.
With cavalier however comes something new every time and the possibility to success. Conservatism’s failure is that it brings no new reward.
The rugby media and supporters are a primary exhibit of what is aspiration and what is acceptable and the ideal of being the best is always replaced with a sense of satisfaction that not coming last is the equal of coming first. The result is the core of teams in any competition and the core of people in life are conditioned that having the fantasy of wanting to be the best and the reality of never been called the worst is the most sought after emotion.
It is why core of coaches will talk about breaking new ground but always revert to what they know because it’s not deemed failure.
Oh to find coaches who see the adventure in selection and strength of individual skills that combined make for the extraordinary.
Those investors in teams do so out of vanity so their intention is not to want the best rugby team. Supporters and the rugby media are the most powerful investors in the coach who can talk of unchartered ground and know the adventure will be a shared one with those who determine his job security, which is the supporter and the reporter. Why do the two of us actually have the responsibility and the power of influence? Because for there to be a rugby team there has to be an owner, but an owner only wants a club if he has an audience who actually pay his bills and spend the money and his players need an audience to perform.
The reporter in rugby is also the game’s story teller and without the story being told, be it in print, electronic or by broadcast, the performance is reduced to a bunch of blokes enjoying a Sunday social run around. Owners and investors need an evolving audience so they need to have a story being told. More paying support and more money allows for better player purchases and dividends. The rewards are great and the risk is the story teller’s words wreck a business and don’t seduce enough to inspire this new audience to pay more than the existing ones.
Coaches are restricted – and we are the worst culprits. You and me.
Our opinions, pre game, demand adventure, investment of skill and something out of the ordinary, but we make the demand of wanting to see a creation without it being allowed to stumble in pursuit of seeing its capabilities.
The World Cup is all about keeping the professional game one controlled by elected officials, who get the benefits of a professional game by way of sponsorship, broadcast deals and a paying support base. It’s commercial value is restricted because those who control it use it as the controlling influence of the game.
The World Cup should be a tournament within rugby’s professional identity. Currently everything else is compromised because to succeed at the World Cup once every four years allows for any amount of failure. The Word Cup is a great tournament but it should be seen as tournament and not as the pinnacle of a four year cycle. All enjoyment and adventure and logic are compromised with the possibility (not probability) of our team winning the World Cup.
What then, a month later this team is playing again and the chance is there to get beaten? And that’s okay?
The game should be played in the current and the obvious is wanting to do better today than was the case yesterday. Think of the madness of the statement if I told you that living was about four years of toil and restriction and just maybe you will get one day in the sun and then your reward is you can at least boast toyour friends about it.
The right brag your team is the best in the world once every four years apparently has such gravitas that everything is compromised and excused within those four years.
The World Cup – and its four year cycle – has restricted a game yet those who control the game through elections and not necessarily intelligence – are convinced its been a revolution. Every value of selection has been compromised. The best aren’t always played for fear of injury. Performances lacking in pedigree are dismissed as not playing the World Cup-winning hand and no player is assessed on what he brings to the team in the week that team is selected.
Players, not yet good enough, are picked now because in three years time they may have to need World Cup final experience. Players, more experienced, are questioned because age is again the restriction and the fear of not knowing whether he will be too old is deemed a worse one than the fear of not knowing if a player, picked on what could be, is actually not good enough.
Professional rugby tournaments have forced the evolvement of a squad system, but the supporter is as amateur in his demand for one and only one starting XV as the amateur administrator is in wanting the players to be thankful someone is willing to actually to administer their game and give them the platform to play.
The media is the worst culprit because the reports discuss a player being dropped when it is the workings of a squad system. The media influences the supporter who is in the professional game the most important voice because it’s the voice of the paying customer.
Think about the power of the supporter but a confused buyer is a sucker of a buyer and rugby’s elected official only sell you the game they want to control and not the one you want to necessarily watch. They think the player is a liability because the supply is greater than the demand and they think the game is about the way they govern when it’s future is exclusive to those who support with their eyes and their cash.
The numbers have again allowed to influence restriction because to start has a bragging right that it is somehow means a player is better than the guy who is the greatest exponent of closing out a win in the role of a substitute. The different skills of these two types of players have never been allowed to develop because those who govern and the majority who support resent the player earning money from a game in which the limitations of the game being strictly amateur have grown to legends of romance and beauty.
No amateur player was exposed to a playing schedule the equal of a professional player. That is why one to 15 worked then but it doesn’t matter now who starts and who finishes. All that is significant about the number is that 15 stays on for the duration of the match.
Age, another number, is the greatest curse because it means performance is secondary.
Endorsing the romance of the amateur days only encourages the restriction in potential pleasure of a professional game.
The coach needs to use a squad system to last the season but the supporter wants only the 15 best every weekend and everyone has ultimate escape of planning for a World Cup.
The performance of the player is not the priority any more. It’s how that performance fits the four year cycle. The performance is no longer the celebration. How wrong.
Player ‘A’ wins your team the Test match and he gets no sense of your joy because you have already accepted he won’t be around for the World Cup and instead of the joy of the day your focus is the possible pain of the big World Cup day.
How absurd is that? What does that say about us that invariably our pleasure is from a possible bragging right once every four years and we condition ourselves to believe that living is about the possibility of feeling something extraordinary in four years time and that living to experience something extraordinary has the risk of death.
Imagine the possibilities of sport if the worth of a team was determined by the pleasure gained through performance and not by relief at not losing.
For rugby, like any sport, to ever be true to the supporter and give pleasure the supporter would have to change his mindset.
That won’t happen because it’s about bragging rights and being defined by what you can tell others or what they will have to say about your team. Only to a few is it about the pleasure they derive from their emotional investment in a team whose pedigree as much about their belief in the manner of performance and not just the winning result in a performance.
Super Rugby can’t rock your world if electric guitars and drums are a risk to your hearing. And when there’s no real sound to what you think looks like a great visual performance then no pie and beer should be enough of a lure to keep you coming back. If it is then eating pies is your passion not watching rugby.
Super Rugby should be about the uncertainty of your heartbeat and not about the certainty of your heartburn.
Here’s to your team rocking your world this season in the pleasure you get from their effort and not in the way it makes you feel only if they win. Now that’s a bragging right because you got reward for your emotional investment.
We want our team to win but if we are watching it for pleasure then the winning is in that emotion. Rugby, like rock and roll, should never be compromised by restriction, especially not by an audience whose passion is for the pleasure felt in watching a performance.
If you are the type of Super Rugby supporter so insecure in identity that your team has to win to give you a reason to smile and give your voice a growl every Monday morning at the office then let’s agree that we will always disagree because my pleasure is your pain and your pleasure, even in observation, is more torture than pain.
To the minority who want the rock and roll, we’ve got every Saturday to live this season. To the oke so desperate to tell you how kak your team is he’s got one Saturday to live through what will be the pain of 80 minutes so he can feel relief that he will be able to tell you his team is the winner.
9 Feb 2013, 20:49 pm
I propose this as the new “dragons”.
9 Feb 2013, 20:53 pm
Well done Wales, at last.
9 Feb 2013, 20:57 pm
Must have ranked as one of the most boring games I have ever seen. Was expecting this to be a real nail bitter but instead it was a nail puller.
9 Feb 2013, 20:58 pm
They are a disgrace.
Freddie is welcome to go back to the Sharks, he obviously feels at home there, fits right in not having any pressure on him to win important matches.
9 Feb 2013, 20:59 pm
@nortierd-5:
Jacques Clouseau looks like a French genius when compared to that lot who represent their country
9 Feb 2013, 21:03 pm
The commentators were showing bits of last weeks game and comparing Freddie to someone playing amatuer rugby.
9 Feb 2013, 21:05 pm
@Captain Birds Eye-4: Yeah, that was painful. I’m glad I watched Scotland/Italy, which was more exciting, and is usually the one 6 Nations game I never bother to watch.
9 Feb 2013, 21:13 pm
michelak is class, he’s just had a couple of ordinary games, davies is an idiot and he was never as good as michelak – i dunno wtf they all think davies was so good, howley was a better player and they;ve had far better flyhalves – davies is a self-important fool. dallaglio is actually by far the best of the current commentary team.
9 Feb 2013, 21:15 pm
@gonzo Scotland played well today. They could give France a good go. Jaco Peyper did ok although he didnt give the poor Italians a lot of time to clear the ball. George Clancy on the other hand gave both teams ample time to use it even repeating himself three or four times.
9 Feb 2013, 21:22 pm
@cab That Davies must be the worst commentator around. The sound of his voice goes through you. I was considering turning the sound off.
9 Feb 2013, 21:31 pm
@kaksioek-2: soek jy kak.
9 Feb 2013, 21:34 pm
@RL-12: Not at all – I’m just trying to help out. Roy seems to have accidentally deleted Keo’s masterpiece, and god knows it must have taken a while to write. We can’t risk it being lost forever.
9 Feb 2013, 21:40 pm
geez that Davies is a k.nob…he kept saying “give the ball to Cuthbert & let him run at Michalak?!!
what the hell, since when can commentator coach?
9 Feb 2013, 21:54 pm
Cappybirdeye – yeah he’s horrific – he was vaguely insightful about 5 years ago but he’s now a bit of a *** – tho I laughed at ‘he’s a.big basteraud’
9 Feb 2013, 22:00 pm
Old Jaco peyper got it right in the kop – looked like Percy taking an up&under – seems like a pretty available bloke just laughed – the saffas are actually the best refs – come along way since gerd bezuidenhout – real pity , he was great, nowadays u want a one-sided ref u gotta go downunderl to nz or oz – fkme they more crooked than hansie in a odi.
9 Feb 2013, 22:18 pm
@Transformation-14:
Transie, he had played rugby league and rugby union as a professional!!
What are you qualifications?
9 Feb 2013, 22:19 pm
@kaksioek-13:
Is Roy still with us, or has Keo dispensed with him too??
9 Feb 2013, 22:20 pm
@cab-16:
Percy… Sigh !!
9 Feb 2013, 22:26 pm
Yep carol – Percy took every up&under ever kicked on him on his head , right up until the Rex final when he caught everything – huge balls, bigger than goldenballs, legendary
9 Feb 2013, 22:26 pm
@carol-17:”qualifications”? for commentary? kwaaaaaaaaa
he is a s.hit & very biased commentator deal with
not to mention a bloody annoying voice…it must only be the deaf that watch his rugby magazine show with nigel owens – both squeaky sounding moaners hehehe.
9 Feb 2013, 22:30 pm
He’s a twat full stop – he’s qualifications are being a welsh imp who had a slightly better read of the game than most of his other mediocre welshies and that’s saying alot considering the wizards they’ve produced in bygone eras – more a symbol head of what welsh rugby once was but now childish one of the boys – he’s horrific, dallalglio is actually by far the best
9 Feb 2013, 22:45 pm
@carol-18: No idea, really. I suspect Keo may have been the one that was dispensed with though. Perhaps HSM gave him his website back and they have parted ways:
http://www.hsm.co.za/news/details/sa-rugby-magazine-gets-a-new-website
SA Rugby magazine will be launching its new website in mid-February, just in time for the 2013 Super Rugby tournament. SARugbymag.co.za will be edited by editor Simon Borchardt, with senior staff writers Jon Cardinelli and Ryan Vrede, and junior staff writer Gareth Duncan, all contributing on a daily basis.
SARugbymag.co.za will provide rugby fans with the latest rugby news, informed opinion and analysis, video (in the form of SARugbymag TV), live score updates during matches, fixtures and logs, and much more. Readers will be able to comment on posts, and access the digital edition of the magazine for just R5.95 per issue.
9 Feb 2013, 22:46 pm
@cab-9:
Michalak was brilliant against Aussie, even better v. the Argies – poor against Italy, diabolical today v. Wales: all depends which French team show up – could be setting England up for a fall; who, other than God, knows what they’re going to do – demanding home league though?
9 Feb 2013, 22:48 pm
The French team would have made the ancyl drooling: 3 forwards, 3 backs and 3 on the bench!
Results accordingly
Where is Nama to counter that notion?
9 Feb 2013, 22:52 pm
JB – quite correct, u never know what the French are going to do – problem is they are at their best when instinctive but the last few coaches have tried to be way too technical – Michelangelo almost single handedly dismantled stormers too and IMO the stormers pack much better than sharks – michelak got amazing hands
9 Feb 2013, 22:57 pm
@Transformation-21:
That anoying voice is a ‘Welsh Accent’!!
It is described as ‘Sing Song’!!
You must not be so insular!!
9 Feb 2013, 23:01 pm
@J.B. Cowper-24:
There wan’t much of a French in half of their Test team today,
Fofana, Bastareaud, Ouedraogo or Suta aren’t more Galic than Tulagi is a ‘Britisher’
Where is Nama to comment?
9 Feb 2013, 23:02 pm
@carol-27: His accent is quite special though – far more annoying than that of any of his countrymen that I have heard so far. And his manner is objectionable too – that of a small child who has been overly indulged by his parents.
9 Feb 2013, 23:06 pm
@carol-27: tom jones is Welsh & so is Jamie Roberts they don’t sound like their balls are being squeezed.
fyi…plenty of Welshmen here in SA i interact with & they sound anything like your boy…refer to Cab’s post above…i’m not the only one who feels this way BlueBird
9 Feb 2013, 23:08 pm
France have imploded badly from WC 2011 finalists to contenders for 2012 6N champions to very one dimension rugby strategy far remove from the flair French rugby of old. Frederick Michalak is a big part of their problem at pivot they got absolutely zero shape in the backline getting caught man and ball every time behind the advantage line French rugby needs a major overhaul fast. Can’t see what this coach sees in Michalak but he should vamoose back to Sharkishits quickly before he does any more detrimental damage to France rugby.
9 Feb 2013, 23:13 pm
@carol-27: Don’t defend that Davies twat. He’s an idiot and he sounds like an arrogant retarded eunuch.
9 Feb 2013, 23:14 pm
And that’s not just a Welsh accent. I know plenty of Welsh people and they don’t sound anything like that fool.
9 Feb 2013, 23:26 pm
@kaksioek-29:
@Transformation-30:
@katman-33:
Johnathan Edwards does have a very broad dialect!
9 Feb 2013, 23:26 pm
Not to everyones taste it seems!! lol
9 Feb 2013, 23:32 pm
@carol-34: I’m sure Jonathan Edwards sounds wonderful. I’m talking about Jonathan Davies.
9 Feb 2013, 23:32 pm
Michelak is not their problem – u don’t even know your own gdam position – the French locks are fkd, the coach is shite – let michelak play (but he won’t Davies’ **** will cross the pond) and he’ll beat England and then it’ll all change. Watch.
Michelak is prob 2 years past it and he’s never had a kicking game ty Ito of doing what the French do best – he is it personified – and light years ahead of trinh duc even in old age
9 Feb 2013, 23:33 pm
@skopdiekan-31:
The fact that they were finalists was a joke and disgrace to start with.
Losing to Tonga and being smashed by the AB’s in the pool stages, what a joke being in the final.
Yet, everyone gushes when once in a blue moon they manage to string together some moves and pox a game or two.
The rest of the time they suck, but are forgiven due to some so called romantic notion that they possess flair.
9 Feb 2013, 23:33 pm
personally, i cannot stand it when he squats down into an upright crouching type fetal postion and proceeds to crawl and squeeze himself in a worm like manner all the way up the All Blacks arses live during any of their games he comments on.
there is not much worse than a Welsh accent whistling out the depths of an All Blacks arse.
how they manage to string a decent game together with a little Welsh commentator all the way up their arses is a feet worth commending.
9 Feb 2013, 23:34 pm
@katman-36:
Blush…Not the long jumper….!!
Sorry
9 Feb 2013, 23:35 pm
@carol-40: The long jumper? You mean that off the shoulder number from the eighties that came down to your knees?
9 Feb 2013, 23:37 pm
@skopdiekan-31:
@nortierd-38:
two games ago nobody would have said this about them.
in fact i would bet you two probably had some gushing praise for them right here on keo.
9 Feb 2013, 23:41 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-42:
I have always said they will NEVER win a WC, they will never win 3 big games in a row, kind of a prequisite to actually win something worthwhile.
9 Feb 2013, 23:41 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-42: Skoppie has a clause in his keo contract that absolves him from anything he might have said more than 6 hours earlier. It’s there in black and white, so don’t even think of giving him a hard time about it.
9 Feb 2013, 23:45 pm
@nortierd-43:
you’re probably right and probably did not have any praise for them when the Ozzie massacre played out.
i’m not too sure about Skop though.
@katman-44:
hehe
i was kinda thinking the same thing.
it might be worth engaging Tranformation Forensic Services for a larf.
9 Feb 2013, 23:45 pm
see the Bulls are leading at the polls.
Bakkies, how many computers do you own?
9 Feb 2013, 23:50 pm
@nortierd-46:
i noticed, it is wierd though.
i only ever vote once on these polls, its just stupid any other way.
of course you need only delete the coookies responsible and do it again if you wanted to.
i suspect the poll will pick up in a few days to show either the Stormers or Sharks as likely conference winners
9 Feb 2013, 23:50 pm
When u bored u gotta be controversial wtf else is there to do.
As for keo looks like he’s all on his own again – that’s also ok he’s articles and website are a million miles better than the **** that’s gets churned out elswewhere in saffadom
9 Feb 2013, 23:52 pm
vasbyt biskuit keo, maar hou op coke snort.
10 Feb 2013, 00:40 am
Speaking about “French flair” and “all depends which French team show up”, can anyone recall more than precious few Tests in recent years where Frenchies really were on fire, I mean, REALLY ON FIRE VS BIG BOYS? All I can recall at the glance is thrashing of poor sods from Ozzland 2012, 1st half vs England in SF WC 2011, and maybe 2010 Six nations Test vs the Irish.
And is there any chance of brilliant French turning up vs diabolical French turning up ratio being anywhere near, say, 1:2 at the very least?
IMHO, all that talk about unique “French flair” is just smoke and mirrors.
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