Adnaan Mohamed - Sport24's man on tour with the Boks

Brisbane - “We are simply not good enough at the moment, mate!”

That was the reaction of Aussie cab driver, Tom Downie, when asked about his opinion on the Australian rugby team.

“Rugby league and Aussie rules are more popular than rugby union in Brisbane. I am a huge rugby union fan, but I am very disappointed with current the state of affairs in Australian rugby and cricket,” Downie complained.

According to him, drastic changes need to be made to the Australian rugby union structures - right from grassroots level, otherwise the game will die a slow death Down Under.

Downie seemed to echo a general sense of disillusionment that I picked up from the locals regarding the underperformance of the national rugby and cricket teams.

“There are quality players here, but they are being lost to footie (AFL) and league. We just don’t have the quality and depth of South Africa and New Zealand. That’s why we cannot compete with them anymore,” he said.

After a 3km drive to the school gates, which cost me a cool R120, I was however just happy to have arrived at the Bok practice on time. It was closed session, which means the media is allowed access for only 20 minutes.

Springbok coach, Peter de Villiers, was watching the action from the sidelines. A local Channel 10 TV cameraman approached the Bok coach, obviously with no clue who De Villiers was.
 
“Do you know who the captain is mate?” he asked De Villiers. De Villiers just laughed and pointed in John Smit’s direction. One would have thought that the least the TV journalist could have done was to try to do a bit of research on who the Bok coach and captain were before coming to get visuals at the Bok practice. 

If you find that hard to believe, the following incident was even more shocking.

At the press conference later that day, SuperSport presenter, Xola Ntshinga, had an interview lined up with Bok centre, Jaque Fourie, who is playing his 50th game on Saturday. An Australian journalist asked Ntshinga if he could piggy back the interview, to which he agreed. He might have thought differently if the guy had asked him who they had just interviewed before the interview, though!

It’s hard to believe that the Aussie media and public are just so ignorant when it comes to rugby union. When I inquire of one of the Aussie journalists if this really is the case, he responds by saying: “It’s not that we are ignorant mate. It’s just that when the team is on a losing streak, the people lose interest.”

Later that afternoon, Bok physiotherapist, René Naylor, takes the players for a core strength and conditioning class at the team hotel. The players particularly look forward to this session because it’s different to the usual field session.

Acting like naughty little kids, they tease her and complain about the music. And when they become mischievous and try to cheat their way out of exercises, Naylor is forced to discipline them by throwing medicine balls at them. 

It forces one to remember that most of these players are still very young, yet they are under a lot of pressure. Sometimes they just want to have fun and sessions like these are a great way of relieving that stress.

On Wednesday the Springboks were given the day off. Some played golf, others visited the Sunshine Coast for a little eye candy, while some just lazed around Brisbane.

*Adnaan Mohamed is on tour with the Springboks and will be writing a daily tour guide from Australia and New Zealand exclusively for Sport24.





Schalk Burger and Pierre Spies take to the course (Gallo Images)