Is it because South African rugby fans are a sour lot when their team has lost. I don’t think so. It's not like we are sore losers who abandon our team when the chips are down. Its not like we only show interest when our team is winning and shift our attention elsewhere when we are on a losing streak. Bok fans have been a loyal lot through good wins and heartbreaking losses.

For me, I feel a real sense of disenchantment among Bok fans. There is a real feeling that our game is being taken into the wrong direction…and we, the bread and butter of what keeps rugby alive in the country, have no say in the course rugby is going. We are helpless as we watch our game of rugby hijacked and mis-administered. Worst, the powers that run rugby know exactly how we feel and the direction we want to see our national side go. And they don’t seem to give a damn.

But the voice of the powerful Bok supporter is completely irrelevant. The loyal supporters who follow the Boks in travel from one end of the country to the other at their own huge expenses do not matter. The loyal supporters, who dish out exorbitant fee’s at the gate to bellow for the Boks, are completely inconsequential. The loyal supporters who crowd around TV sets, adding revenue for every face watching…insignificant. The loyal supporters who dish out fortunes to follow the Boks to the opposite ends of the world, totally meaningless.

I mean, who cares what those ignorant Bok rugby fans feel about rugby. We have our own narrow agenda to fulfil and who cares about the masses of Bok fans who are the financial bread and butter of SA rugby?

These are the guys who keep the stadiums full, these are the guys who bring in TV revenue, these are the guys who invoke and promote vigorous passion, passing it on to their children and other newcomers to the sport. These are the guys that buy up all the Bok memorabilia, jerseys and everything else related. These are the guys who paint themselves and the faces of their young kids green and gold.  And yet their absolute disenchantment with a sport that their passion helps keep alive just doesn't matter.

Those that are the custodians of sport in South Africa, those esteemed minority of individuals… a hand full of them in a posh boardroom, impose on the masses of rugby supporters their own narrow agenda’s.

Ignorance and utter arrogance are two significant traits that define the custodians of our game and the coaches they appoint. It rocks me that when a man clearly incompetent at this intense level, moving from one monumental failure to the next, ignores the advice of those more knowledgeable then himself. Eddie Jones, Jake White, former players, former coaches… In fact an international rugby fraternity of big names and small, all warning a rookie coach “don’t go there, change course”. And the response is ignorant defiance. Bok supporters simply despair.

And then the powers that be in the corridors of SA Rugby unanimously back him.

You know, had our coach come out and said “We tried something, its not working, lets revaluate”, many of us would feel a sense of hope. My Dad always told us as kids is that it takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong.

Saturday’s team by all accounts also does not inspire too much confidence. A wing pairing of two rookie internationals in Jonde Nokwe and Sharks Ndugane, the absence of mercurial Frans Steyn. CJ’s absence due to suspension etc.  However I would have more confidence in a B team with an A class coach then I would with an A team lead by a B class coach. The more injuries and suspensions take it’s toll, the gloomier the picture gets.

Its not just in rugby, but all of South African sports codes are run by people who are there more for their own self serving interests then they are for the good of the sports. I watched the Beijing Olympics with only a passing interest, and I watched CNN and BBC’s perspective. To be honest I never followed our local guys in Beijing. Just got the international version.

Every country at the Olympics seemed to have something to celebrate. The USA, China, Australia, Great Britain, Jamaica. Every country had a reason to rejoice. Every nation was a winner. At the end of the Olympics, I picked up a newspaper and read for the first team the fate of our own Olympic team and it was a sad but familiar tale of political infighting and monumental failures in team SA. The same accusation that echo in SA rugby and other sporting codes, echoed through our Olympic team. Political interference, under performance , accusations backwards and forth, and massive infighting. The negativity and gloom surrounding team SA with nothing to celebrate seemed so contrary to all other teams at the Olympics, each who were able to find their own piece of Olympic pride and glory and return home with it.

In rugby, we have bemoaned political interference in our sport for many years. The political appointment of a rugby player is not nearly as damaging as political appointments of administrators who then go on to make more political appointments at coaching level. The result.  Rapid regression for the sport. Having said that, I want to go on record in saying that none of the black and coloured players in our squad are anything but players of merit. Janjties, Januarie, Habana, Adi Jacobs, Jonde Nokwe are all players who deserve to be there. Drop them or elevate them on rugby decisions alone, tactics and combinations… they are all useful players that have a rightful place in the squad based on their rugby prowess alone. Even though I am not a fan of Ndugane, I call it a bad selection. Not a political one. The only relevant political selection in Bok rugby is the one that matters most. The coach.

I find it extremely worrying when the one man who should be more concerned then everyone else, declares satisfaction in our recent showing. Everyone from Bok fans to former players and former coaches expressing alarming concern for the performances of a very talented group of players..  And the incumbent coach expresses satisfaction! Comments of “We didn't do to badly”. Where the hell is Bok rugby heading with this short sighted, less then visionary, under qualified individual at the helm. He only needs to read the fern and threads dedicated to his quotes and the howls of laughter and entertainment his ineptitude generates.

Please Mr Puppet, step down before you make SA rugby a bigger laughing stock then it already is. I am sure you are a nice enough guy, but surely you have the wisdom to know that you are out of your depth here. 

The only thing we have to fear with your vacancy is that it will induce SA rugby to make an even worse political decision to succeed you.

To our rugby bosses. Lets start selecting coaches who are the best qualified at getting the best results from the Boks….and let that include foreign coaches, if necessary. Soccer is so hell bent in raising the national team from the pits of international football, that they have no qualms in employing outsiders and paying them more money per month then even the richest in SA will ever earn.

Forward be the way for Bok rugby and SA sport in general.