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Rob Houwing’s ‘Tops on the Telly’ column
I am in two minds, myself, over the now infamous Ard Matthews “forgetful moment(s)” on live television on Tuesday night.
Part of me reckons we get just a bit too precious about the national anthem sometimes. So he stuffed up ... stuff-ups happen!
But then another side of me also shares the widespread view that it was bad form on the singer’s part at the Bok RWC squad announcement - really, really bad form.
How could he actually forget several chunks of the bloody thing? I can still remember my school song, for goodness sake, despite matriculating as far back as 1981 ... and bits of it are in Latin, I’ll have you know.
And here’s another thought: why couldn’t a few of the Bok players have been a little more sharp-witted and helped the guy out of his agony? They sing it often enough.
After all, there’s an oft-screened TV advertisement for a major bank doing the rounds, where that little girl stumbles near the end of “Nkosi” and one of the instrumentalists pipes up opportunely to put her back on track.
The Matthews gremlin aside, SuperSport 1’s broadcast of the function - I tend not to be a massive fan of these rah-rah affairs - was slickly enough done, suitably suspenseful, and with Darren Scott as confident an anchor as you’d wish from someone of his vast, live-telly experience.
I did wonder why he felt it necessary at one stage to say something like “thank you for being here” to the Bok party: apart from the compulsory aspect anyway, wouldn’t you wish to be present if you were being feted before the nation as a member of a World Cup squad?
But Darren is not lacking in a tongue-in-cheek side; perhaps it was a wicked, conscious or subconscious reference to a certain James O’Connor’s AWOL tendencies from Wallaby functions of late ...
There was a slightly nervy, sideline presence by the winner of SuperSport’s debatable “Lady Rugga” exercise, Elma Smit, whom we will apparently see plenty of during the World Cup itself: she asked former RWC participant Ashwin Willemse about what it was like being part of “a SuperSport squad”.
Mind the brainwashing now, Elma!
And call this a splitting of hairs, if you wish, but when the pen sketch profiles appeared for each Bok player as he was announced, where did they get the player weights from?
I seriously hope hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle doesn’t, in fact, tip the scales at a mere 93kg, nor the human bulldozer Willem Alberts 103kg – other sources suggest the Sharks loosie is a much more menacing 120kg machine about to be let loose on the world ...
Rob’s awesome foursome
1. Australia v New Zealand, Castle Tri-Nations rugby
Brisbane, Saturday 12:05, M-Net, SS1 & SHD
In any other year, we’d all be pretty distraught at the Springboks being so abjectly out of the picture, going into the grand climax of the tournament. But with a World Cup imminent, maybe us sitting back from afar and watching the Antipodean giants beat the you-know-what out of each other in a title decider isn’t the worst scenario! I believe this will be closer – considerably so – than the first-round meeting in New Zealand, when the All Blacks romped home by 16 points. They should do enough to be crowned champions yet again, but perhaps with only five to seven points in it in the Queensland metropolis?
2. Lions v Sharks, Absa Currie Cup rugby
Johannesburg, Saturday 17:05, M-Net, SS1 & SHD
I occasionally get accused of being a closet Sharks fan, for some inexplicable reason. (Happily, I am also sometimes branded Bulls or WP-obsessed, too ... maybe that’s comforting confirmation of journalistic neutrality?). So at the risk of extending that Sharks-partial suspicion, I’m tipping the champions to further dent the log-leaders’ aspirations in their visit to the Big Smoke for the weekend’s top-billing game. Of course the Lions, buoyed by Wikus van Heerden’s return to fitness and captain Josh Strauss earning a clean bill of health after his rib scare, will be thinking very differently and out to make amends for being squeezed out at Newlands in their last fixture to surrender an unbeaten record. Sharks by three for me.
3. Manchester United v Arsenal, English Premiership soccer
Manchester, Sunday 17:00, SS3, Maximo & SHD3
Early days in the Premiership programme of 2011/12, and already no lack of “big guns” encounters: this certainly counts as another. I was going to emphatically tip United (who have started their title defence so smoothly) initially ... but then Arsenal went and got a really morale-boosting away win against Udinese in the Champions League qualifier in midweek. Maybe it’s not quite the doom and gloom around the Emirates that we imagined? All the same, unless the Gunners can test out presently shaky Red Devils goalkeeping acquisition David de Gea pretty often, you’ve still got to slightly back the home win, I suspect.
4. Sri Lanka v Australia, 1st cricket Test
Galle, Wednesday 06:30, SS2
Marvellous, two-pronged spying mission here! The Proteas entertain both of these countries in Test series this summer, so them playing each other in advance is pretty handy from a reconnaissance point of view, isn’t it? They’ve already completed the ODI series, with the Aussies winning 3-2, and when I chatted to new SA coach Gary Kirsten just this week he expressed the view that this had been an unexpectedly strong statement by the away outfit. Might a reawakening of the game Down Under be taking root more stealthily than the rest of the world imagined? Let’s see what happens over the course of the (three) five-day contests ...
I am in two minds, myself, over the now infamous Ard Matthews “forgetful moment(s)” on live television on Tuesday night.
Part of me reckons we get just a bit too precious about the national anthem sometimes. So he stuffed up ... stuff-ups happen!
But then another side of me also shares the widespread view that it was bad form on the singer’s part at the Bok RWC squad announcement - really, really bad form.
How could he actually forget several chunks of the bloody thing? I can still remember my school song, for goodness sake, despite matriculating as far back as 1981 ... and bits of it are in Latin, I’ll have you know.
And here’s another thought: why couldn’t a few of the Bok players have been a little more sharp-witted and helped the guy out of his agony? They sing it often enough.
After all, there’s an oft-screened TV advertisement for a major bank doing the rounds, where that little girl stumbles near the end of “Nkosi” and one of the instrumentalists pipes up opportunely to put her back on track.
The Matthews gremlin aside, SuperSport 1’s broadcast of the function - I tend not to be a massive fan of these rah-rah affairs - was slickly enough done, suitably suspenseful, and with Darren Scott as confident an anchor as you’d wish from someone of his vast, live-telly experience.
I did wonder why he felt it necessary at one stage to say something like “thank you for being here” to the Bok party: apart from the compulsory aspect anyway, wouldn’t you wish to be present if you were being feted before the nation as a member of a World Cup squad?
But Darren is not lacking in a tongue-in-cheek side; perhaps it was a wicked, conscious or subconscious reference to a certain James O’Connor’s AWOL tendencies from Wallaby functions of late ...
There was a slightly nervy, sideline presence by the winner of SuperSport’s debatable “Lady Rugga” exercise, Elma Smit, whom we will apparently see plenty of during the World Cup itself: she asked former RWC participant Ashwin Willemse about what it was like being part of “a SuperSport squad”.
Mind the brainwashing now, Elma!
And call this a splitting of hairs, if you wish, but when the pen sketch profiles appeared for each Bok player as he was announced, where did they get the player weights from?
I seriously hope hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle doesn’t, in fact, tip the scales at a mere 93kg, nor the human bulldozer Willem Alberts 103kg – other sources suggest the Sharks loosie is a much more menacing 120kg machine about to be let loose on the world ...
Rob’s awesome foursome
1. Australia v New Zealand, Castle Tri-Nations rugby
Brisbane, Saturday 12:05, M-Net, SS1 & SHD
In any other year, we’d all be pretty distraught at the Springboks being so abjectly out of the picture, going into the grand climax of the tournament. But with a World Cup imminent, maybe us sitting back from afar and watching the Antipodean giants beat the you-know-what out of each other in a title decider isn’t the worst scenario! I believe this will be closer – considerably so – than the first-round meeting in New Zealand, when the All Blacks romped home by 16 points. They should do enough to be crowned champions yet again, but perhaps with only five to seven points in it in the Queensland metropolis?
2. Lions v Sharks, Absa Currie Cup rugby
Johannesburg, Saturday 17:05, M-Net, SS1 & SHD
I occasionally get accused of being a closet Sharks fan, for some inexplicable reason. (Happily, I am also sometimes branded Bulls or WP-obsessed, too ... maybe that’s comforting confirmation of journalistic neutrality?). So at the risk of extending that Sharks-partial suspicion, I’m tipping the champions to further dent the log-leaders’ aspirations in their visit to the Big Smoke for the weekend’s top-billing game. Of course the Lions, buoyed by Wikus van Heerden’s return to fitness and captain Josh Strauss earning a clean bill of health after his rib scare, will be thinking very differently and out to make amends for being squeezed out at Newlands in their last fixture to surrender an unbeaten record. Sharks by three for me.
3. Manchester United v Arsenal, English Premiership soccer
Manchester, Sunday 17:00, SS3, Maximo & SHD3
Early days in the Premiership programme of 2011/12, and already no lack of “big guns” encounters: this certainly counts as another. I was going to emphatically tip United (who have started their title defence so smoothly) initially ... but then Arsenal went and got a really morale-boosting away win against Udinese in the Champions League qualifier in midweek. Maybe it’s not quite the doom and gloom around the Emirates that we imagined? All the same, unless the Gunners can test out presently shaky Red Devils goalkeeping acquisition David de Gea pretty often, you’ve still got to slightly back the home win, I suspect.
4. Sri Lanka v Australia, 1st cricket Test
Galle, Wednesday 06:30, SS2
Marvellous, two-pronged spying mission here! The Proteas entertain both of these countries in Test series this summer, so them playing each other in advance is pretty handy from a reconnaissance point of view, isn’t it? They’ve already completed the ODI series, with the Aussies winning 3-2, and when I chatted to new SA coach Gary Kirsten just this week he expressed the view that this had been an unexpectedly strong statement by the away outfit. Might a reawakening of the game Down Under be taking root more stealthily than the rest of the world imagined? Let’s see what happens over the course of the (three) five-day contests ...
