O’Sullivan on ‘Fickle Fans’ and Cosatu’s empty-headed rugby commentary

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By David O’Sullivan

A warning: there are at least two rugby clichés in this column. Here’s the first: it’s amazing what a difference a win makes. Imagine the wailing had the Irish won the Test series at Ellis Park. The great Springbok fightback in the second Test has been analysed in fine detail in the past week, and the team for the decisive third Test rewards those responsible for saving the game.

David O'Sullivan
David O’Sullivan

It’s predictable that I, as a Lions fan, will point out (as many Lions fans have done) that Lions players sparked the Springbok resurgence. Fans like to brag. Particularly Lions fans who for so long have had little to gloat about. On my Twitter biography, it says “Lions fan”. It used to say “long-suffering Lions fan” reflecting the time when the Lions seldom won and supporting them was a bit of an ordeal.

It was an ordeal I couldn’t escape. I had made the decision to support them after my father took me to my first Currie Cup rugby match at the old Ellis Park with the wooden benches when I was 12 years old. I watched Paul Bayvel and Gerald Bosch (the Transvaal and Springbok half-back pair) and I was hooked to the team in the white shirts with the red hoop. I remember little about the actual game. I know Transvaal played Orange Free State and some bigger boys got so drunk on Cinzano that they threw up naartjies all over themselves. Disgusting things are always more memorable for a 12-year old boy.

So when Ruan Combrinck took the pass from Willie Le Roux and trampled Paddy Jackson Lomu-style to score an exhilarating try, and when Warren Whiteley side-stepped the Irish defence and lunged over the try line, and when Franco Mostert put his considerable strength and weight behind Pieter-Steph du Toit and helped him barge over the line, I had to point out that MY players had sparked the Springbok resurgence.

Of course, that unfairly ignores the contribution made by Damian de Allende and Le Roux, who finally found their mojo, and by du Toit whose athleticism has been highly praised by the Ireland coach.

Here’s the second cliché: this was a team effort. It really was, and to single out the Lions players doesn’t do justice to the rest of the team. But the sight of Combrinck the Punisher bouncing Jackson must have put fire in his teammates’ bellies. Nothing was the same after that.

At halftime I tweeted that, in 36 years of watching Springbok rugby, I had never heard the crowd boo the Springboks. I suggested the Boks deserved the roasting because they had been rubbish. At full time I tweeted that the Boks had been magnificent and the crowd was now behind them. The response on Twitter was interesting. There was some agreement. But there was also a fair amount of comment about the booing being unpatriotic and premature, and the fans being fickle.

Giving voice to your happiness or unhappiness over the way your team is playing is what fans do. They clap and they groan. They cheer and they boo. It’s a loud, extreme performance appraisal. It’s part of being a fan. Fans can’t only applaud the good stuff and stay shtum for the bad stuff. They make a noise and shouting “boo” is part of the repertoire. I realise this might not be a popular view. My wife was markedly frosty about the crowd’s behavior and felt the booing was inappropriate. She feels it should be restricted to kids voicing their disapproval about Captain Hook in a pantomime.

Fans are loyal to their team, but that doesn’t mean they watch everything through rose-tinted glasses. They’ll get angry but they won’t stop supporting their team. They can’t. They’re committed.

Booing is not about no longer loving your country. It’s like a parent who loves their wayward child. There’s abject disappointment. Stern words are exchanged, But the love goes on.

To say the fans were fickle is fair if they all had time machines to travel to the end of the game, see the final score, return to real time and hold back on their criticism.

Cosatu’s empty-headed rugby commentary

Finally, a few words about Cosatu’s latest assessment about South African rugby. Given the empty-headed comments about M-Net and commentators, it’s difficult to take seriously the allegation that a cabal of white players is actively plotting the downfall of the team. No names and no details are given. It makes no sense.

There is also a demand that rugby be removed from M-Net and shown on the SABC. If you needed a clear indication of how out of touch Cosatu is, this is it. M-Net doesn’t show rugby. Supersport does, and to suggest it’s the same thing is like saying Comedy Central shows religious programmes.

I used to work for the SABC on their rugby coverage so I have some insight into why it doesn’t show rugby. The main reason is that SABC can’ t afford the broadcast rights, and buys terrestrial rights from Supersport which don’t cost as much. In any event, Supersport has sown up the rights and for anyone to wrestle them away will require deep pockets.

As much as the SABC would like to show games live at prime time, the majority of viewers don’t want it. They want their soapies. I remember being involved in a rare live broadcast of a match which meant a popular soapie was bumped for the afternoon. I remember the angry e-mails, whose enraged writers seemed to think I personally made the decision since I was the presenter.

And then there’s the baffling call for old white commentators to be replaced by young white commentators. Don’t they realize Hugh Bladen hasn’t commentated on a Springbok international for years? Unless of course, Matthew Pearce and Bob Skinstad are the old men being referred to. That’s got to sting for Matt and Bob, who are working well to retain their looks. Quite why they want young white men to do the job isn’t clear. Possibly Derek Alberts has a Cosatu branch of his fan club that we weren’t aware of.

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