JJ Harmse

Congratulate Gio Aplon, Francois Louw and Dewald Potgieter on their first "caps" against New Zealand on Tuesday.

Yes, Tuesday. That was when the three of them, with all of 10 Test matches between them, were let loose on the New Zealand media on day one of the two weeks the Boks will spend in Auckland during the opening stanza of their Tri-Nations campaign.

As usual, there was a lot of hot air by the time the second of the two batches of Springboks touched down in Auckland.

By the time he arrived, Peter de Villiers was reported as having said that Graham Henry has a big mouth and that certainly created some controversy in New Zealand, stirred up the emotions and drew a line in the sand.

As expected, De Villiers’s words were twisted and the coach was made out to be the villain, out to bad-mouth not only the coach of their flagship, the All Blacks, but to insult the New Zealand population.

So, during the opening day of the New Zealand media’s chance to strike back, a fairly grumpy John Smit, who woke up an hour before, did the customary opening act and grovelled his way through a barrage of questions.

That irritated the Kiwis even more and they were looking for someone to turn on.

In walked the three rookies, all with smiles on their faces. If only they knew the New Zealand media were looking for a sensational angle and looking for blood.
 
There Aplon was, having to field numerous questions about politics in South Africa and almost having to defend his family’s decision to support the Springboks and not the All Blacks, as a number of people of colour in Cape Town do.

There Louw was, answering questions about the future of Newlands as a venue for rugby and why Cape Town Stadium should not host Springbok v All Blacks Test matches in the future. And the reporter asking the question did not even know the Jan Pickard stand at Newlands was named after Louw’s grandfather!

The same with Potgieter, who will not be involved in this weekend’s match. He had to answer questions on how he felt when facing the Haka and playing against Richie McCaw etc. What was he supposed to say? Sorry, but I am not playing, but I am sure it will a great feeling?

Well done to Appels, Flo and Pottie for the way they handled the situation. They will be stronger for it and Louw and Potgieter did do justice to claims that they can become Springbok captains in the future.

On Wednesday when De Villiers finally fronted up to the media, he was teased and tempted to let go with one of his controversial statements, but this time the coach stood firm.

He was funny, serious and at times introspective in his approach and did not give the Kiwis anything to nail him on. He even explained the ’big mouth’ quote, saying that like himself, Henry is always honest in what he says. That often results in people not liking them, but according to De Villiers, he does not care what people think about him. The only opinion he cares about is his own.

“And I like myself, thanks,” he said with a smile.

Victor Matfield was the other person at the press conference and it is very interesting to see how he is treated by the local media. He has almost pop star status and they have the ultimate respect for the big fellow. No funny questions, no cheap shots, no frills. All questions were about the game and scribes nodded in agreement with everything the lock had to say.

Matfield had them eating out of his hand and De Villiers must have made some mental notes on how to win the Kiwis over. It will of course be much easier for him next week in Wellington if the Boks beat the All Blacks at Eden Park!
 
On to something else. How great was it to see Uruguay's Luis Suárez (again) becoming the ultimate cheat in soccer? As you will recall, I lamented the fact that soccer players in the Soccer World Cup were more interested in faking fouls than actually winning games a couple of weeks ago and used Suárez as an example after his disgraceful actions against Bafana Bafana.

But the best was yet to come and his hand ball against Ghana was the final straw. How can that be justified? How is it possible that such an obvious act of cheating can be allowed to determine a result in a tournament as big as this?

I am sorry soccer guys, but if you call that the beautiful game, you are missing out. If you want to see beautiful, make sure you are up early on Saturday morning when the Boks play New Zealand’s All Blacks at Eden Park.

Read JJ every Sunday in Rapport.

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