A recent article by Dan Retief on Frik du Preez and what the game of rugby means, or meant to some folks, have prompted me to ask if rugby as a professional sport, has crossed the line.
Rugby romantics will love Dan Retief’s article. It is probably the very reason the current generation of rugby supporters started following the game of rugby, where the ethos and camaraderie means a hell of a lot more than the money in the game.
Here you had some of the legends of the game of rugby in South Africa, travelling far and wide to join the man who was voted as South Africa’s player of the Century in celebrating his 75th birthday. You had guys that played with and against him, and even legends of another generation of players who followed in Oom Frik’s footsteps. The common denominator, they are all legends, and they all played during rugby’s amateur days.
Rugby of course had to move the professional route, and a new generation is waking up and beginning to follow and play the game of rugby, ones who will perhaps not share our passion and camaraderie with the game even as simple supporters, but a generation influenced by what now makes the rugby world go round – money.
It might be disrespectful, even patronizing if I was to suggest it is our duty, as the last amateur generation of the game, to teach our kids the ethos of the game, but I don’t think it will be out of line to question the ethics of players, administrators and more importantly, parents of these kids when it comes to embracing professionalism as a reality, but not the foundation the game is built on.
A recent SA Rugby Magazine article highlighted the apparent poaching that is going on in the game of rugby in South Africa. Nothing new I know, but when this article referred to poaching and player recruitment at schoolboy level, we should become very concerned.
Unlike the article I will not take a dig at any individual school mentioned, but rather look at this new phenomenon as a whole.
Rugby is quite simply a game reliant on passion. Passion for your team, passion for the jersey, and passion for its rich heritage and history. Without this, rugby means nothing.
In the very same issue there was another feature of rugby being played in a USA military camp, where the game is used not only to prepare soldiers and equip them with the skills of making quick, efficient decisions in an ever changing dynamic such as the front-lines of war-zones, but also to form a camaraderie amongst these men and women that nothing will ever be able to break or change, not even death.
It is the same camaraderie Dan Retief highlights in his column where decades after these men stopped playing the game, they still make an effort to get together from all over the world, to celebrate the different individuals achievements and even hardships, as a recent initiative to support another Bok legend, Tiny Naude showed, where legends of the game came together to raise funds for their brother in arms who has fallen ill in recent years.
What has become of this ethos and camaraderie if we sell our kids off like cattle to the highest bidder, some of whom have just entered their teen years?
Can we honestly expect this generation of players and even supporters to one day grow up and still write about or discuss events such as we see today with Oom Frik and Tiny Naude? Will we even see John Smit and Victor Matfield 40 years from now to get together and celebrate one another’s birthday – two team mates that have formed such a tight bond over the last 6 years? Like Dan Retief, I am not so sure…
Professionalism in rugby is a reality, and in my opinion even necessary, but not at the expense of what the game stands for, and what it is build on.
We have been given the warning signs in recent years with a certain breed of players, administrators and even journalists which have been created given the nature of the game and how professionalism has changed it. But once we start corrupting our kids, the future custodians of the game, we have crossed the line.
In all honesty money does have an influence on loyalty to the man who writes the cheques.
I do however think the ethos or player relationships will stand the test of time. When you have fought in the trenches for so long with your team mates, how could it not?
Man, oh man… sorry for my absense here…
Car Registrations ect… sat the whole freegin morning in the sun at the Benoni Police – Vehicle Branch to take the BMW through Police Clearance, then went to the Traffic Department… Licencing… sat in the freegin queue there…
Pityful how pathetic our Government Departments are. Arseholes sitting behind desks chatting furiously to collegues… doing everything except their jobs.
The real issue is “What sort of kids are we raising today”
When I see fathers at schoolboy matches behaving madly and I hear about how these fathers interfere at U10 level with the coaches, selection and tactics, then I get the understanding that the problem is not so much professional rugby but rather PARENTS who are motivated by the selfish greed of turning their sons into professional players at the expense of any game or any other individual.
There is nothing wiser than a father who played second team at school living every day and prepared to do anything to make his little hero a professional rugby player whether he is capable or not!!
GBS – buy new. They do it for you.
The people of Pretoria
Were living in a state of euphoria
But here is the thing
That a shark with a sting
Left them sulking for the next year
4@ Pam Anderson:
Worst financial investment you’ll ever make in your life is to buy a brand new car… the moment you drive off the showroom floor, it depreciates substantially and quickly… and depreciation continues for the rest of it’s life-span.
The best car (still not an investment, but a necessity) is a car which is fully paid for…
Well, my car is fully paid for…. so to have suffered one morning and score for years, that is smart thinking.
Take that as a life lesson friend!
@ grootblousmile:
6 – gbs, It depends in what condition you buy your used car. Sometimes cheap is expensive. When I was younger used to always buy a 2nd hand car, maybe 2 years old, but they always gave me plenty trouble and eventually cost me more. So now days will always buy a brand new car and drive it until it really needs replaced. That way I get more out of my money. 😀
Catch you all on the 29th or 30th. Off now to get my plane to Perth.
Before I go. Good morning to all you RT when you eventually wake up to blog 😀
GBS – a car is not an investment but buy a new one outright and it will keep you happy even longer.
Throw in service plans etc and Bob’s your auntie.
Its all relative at the end of the day. Beemers are some of the worst when it comes to depreciation as every 2nd idiot has one.
Luckily my days of fast cars are over – Africa’s roads too shit for them.
@ Pam Anderson:
Eish Pam , you realize GBS just bought a Beemer?
You know how sensitive Boys are about their Toys. 😆
Watch the response.
Hahaha Super.
Its ironic though that he worries about depreciation but buys a BMW.
Maybe he got a cheapie near the end of its depreciation curve or maybe old GBS is as tight as a ragdoll’s rectum 🙂
Don’t buy expensive cars, rather spend your money on a nice cruiser, there is plenty of accessories you can spend money on.
That’s the spirit Biltong!
Biltong – I will take on a Ferrari anytime.
He won’t make it through the 1st pothole.
@ Pam Anderson:
What are you riding Pam?
I got me a XV1700 midnight warrior
@ Pam Anderson:
Here is a link to my bicycle
http://www.mybikeforums.com/forums/album.php?albumid=819&pictureid=7377
Link doesn’t work Biltong.
BUT – looks like a Harley, sounds like a Harley. Its not a Harley 🙂
Don’t like roadbikes – had a couple of mates killed on them. I stick to offroad – nothing but KTM for me.
@ Pam Anderson:
Yeah, I considered buying the BMW GS800, but at my age it is a lot more fun to just cruise the highways.
The XV1700 is placed as what Yamaha calls a Power Cruiser, handles really well and what I like is the fact that it can’t go past 200KM/H.
Lots of torque.
Harley’s are for people buying Brand names, if you ever buy a cruiser check out the quality of Star motorcycles.
Biltong – the 800 is a nice allround machine.
But if you are going to cruise the gravel routes with some rougher terrain the HP2 or KTM 990 would be my choice.
huh?
en hoe’t ekka nou op topgear beland? 😆
@ Ashley:
Nee ash, dit is 2Wheels
Of course we’ve crossed the line.
Schools recruiting players with Rugby Bursaries isn’t new. My neighbors son was poached 10 years ago like this by Monnas.
@ biltongbek:
Do you use it as a recreational vehicle or as a regular means of transport?
@ Scrumdown:
I would love to use it as means of transport, but unfortunately as a broker I see clinets on a regular basis and some frown upon bikers.
So therefor I use it recreationally only. This year have been to Graskop, Sabie, Witrivier etc twice, also to Clarens, and looking very much forward to riding around the western cape in december.
Oh and of course, Africa bike week is a must for all bikers, next year from the 29th of April to the 2nd of may, we’ll be cruising the roads of the South Coast. Went there for the first time this year, over 2500 bikes, mostly Harley’s (as it is their week), doing a mass ride, what fun.
@ biltongbek:
I was in Margate on holiday 2 years ago at the time of the event.
I was very saddened to see how many bikes arrived on trailers.
I commute to work at least 3 days a week on my “tupperware torpedo” (even if it’s only 5 km’s), so you can imagine my disdain for those attending a bikers week with their rubber band driven, push rod valve operated V twin that essentially hasn’t changed in 100 years, strapped down safely on a trailer.
Amazing what middle age and insecurity can do to a person.
I think the Jap’s have forgotten more about internal combustion engineering than the Milwaukee based Americans will ever learn.
I bet you’re Yamaha is faster, smoother, and better handling than a Harley, and most likely has an almost maintenance free shaft drive instead of a rubber band.
I must admit though that Harley have had the best sustained marketing campaign in the last century.
(All a bit tongue in cheek biltongbek.)
@ biltongbek:
But I also wouldn’t be surprised if most of the Harley owners look down their collective noses at you when you arrive at “their” bike week on a Japanese bike!
Ok, new post, back to rugby…controversy and kakpraat…my main attributes…
@ Scrumdown:
Yes, you have to give Harley Davidson credit for the brand they have built. We have a Star Riders Association, and wanted to use one of the restaurants as our “home Base”, Harley simply refused.
So they do protect what is their’s.
As far as the up the nose look, it is strange, you get a lot of them that are just normal unpretentious bikers, but yet as in any group there are those who buy the bike as a status symbol.
Just a quick story.
In auguset 5 of us did a recce in the lowveld, to check where everyone could stay, eat, what roads we would ride etc.
In Sabie there is a Pub called The Woodsman. Now this is where the 22 km run ends, leaving from Hazeyview. You basically do the run uphill.
In this pub there is a sign that says, all bikes welcome, except for Harley’s, they must be loaded onto a trailer and pulled via the appropriate car.
Now whilst we were there, there was roughly 100 Harley’s from the clearwater chapter in Roodepoort, and we choose to tell the story that us 5 Star Riders, ran them out of town. How, we showed them the sign and also a badge one of our guys were wearing, it says ” I rather send my sister to the house of ill repute, than see her on a Harley. Obviuosly not as polite as that.
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