Lions in SA
Mood turning towards Boks?
2009-06-30 14:02
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Bok assistant coach Dick Muir (Gallo Images)
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Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writerJohannesburg – If the line of questioning from UK journalists at Tuesday’s lunchtime Springbok media briefing here was anything to go by, the home side are clawing back some sympathy in Britain and Ireland.
This contrasting development follows the roasting they took over the Schalk Burger eye-gouging affair, a citing and suspension also for Bakkies Botha and disputed, in certain respects, series triumph over the British and Irish Lions after the stormy and controversial Loftus second Test.
Indeed, possibly taking their cue from comments by former England captain Will Carling, in which he described a “thugs” labelling of the Boks as unwarranted, much of the probing of Peter de Villiers and his Bok coaching assistants Gary Gold and Dick Muir at Montecasino revolved around whether Ian McGeechan, the Lions mastermind, had congratulated the Boks on their victory.
It emerged that he had not - even if a rather more restrained and composed De Villiers on this occasion had to be significantly pressed to concede as much and genuinely appeared not to want to make a song and dance about it.
Directly asked whether McGeechan had shaken his hand after the Test, De Villiers tried to take a diplomatic route, saying he had “good relations” with his counterpart and that it would be “premature with one Test to go” to criticise anybody on the grounds of magnanimity.
“He’s a gentleman, you do not become a bad person overnight, and if he wants to do the (right thing) after the third Test I am sure he will,” De Villiers said. “I know the man, and he will do so.
“We just didn’t get the chance to speak to each other after the (Loftus) game, that’s all.”
Just as interestingly, another British pressman asked the Bok triumvirate whether they had considered engineering any citing procedures of their own against Lions players, considering the fiery nature of the match and that the two-week ban on lock Botha had appeared “harsh”.
Muir responded - with a similar measured approach to De Villiers’s - that the Boks had indeed found the outcome of Botha’s citing reasonably hard to swallow.
“What was really disappointing for us was that there appeared to have been no reason for (Botha’s “cleaning-out” incident against Adam Jones) to be cited. It looked a fairly routine challenge.
“We are a bit concerned about what the game’s coming to. Cleaning out at the rucks is a big part of rugby and a department that’s essentially physical.”
Asked by Sport24 whether the Bok selection for the third Test - delayed to Thursday - would be a reflection of the desire for an historic series sweep against the Lions, Muir replied: “Absolutely, we want to put out as strong a (combination) as possible. Of course it’s a tough year of rugby and there are also bigger pictures to consider, but we do want to field the best team we can under our (circumstances).”
De Villiers said the Boks had avoided instituting any citing complaints of their own because “we don’t want to take our eyes off the big task this Saturday”.
He said the International Rugby Board went to expensive lengths to have citing commissioners in place and that “we leave it to them to do things as they see fit”.