African World Cup

Bryce Lawrence – what a terrible ref – unbelievable how one man can wreak a countries hopes and dreams through careless and bad refereeing – or was it something more sinister – word going around was that he was trying to make up for his bad performance in the Ireland Australian world cup game. What ever – he certainly should not be allowed near any international rugby game again. As for the Springboks, including Peter De Villiers composure – I am proud to be a South African. My respect for the South African coach is huge, and I think South African rugby will lose if he resigns.

This appeared in THE AUSTRALIAN this morning!!

LIMITING THE POWER OF THE WHISTLE
 
There are no doubt a lot of Australian rugby supporters celebrating our victory over the Springboks yesterday. There are also a number of us that are wondering how on earth we managed to pull it off against a side that dominated possession and territory and lineouts. Now, I don’t want to take anything away from the Australian victory – our boys did perform superbly but on the day the Springboks were, we have to admit, the better side. The boks, as always were magnanimous in defeat with a somewhat pragmatic approach to the result. I wonder what our boys would have said  faced with the same situation of blatant incompetence by Mr Bryce Lawrence.
 
I support Australia and always will but for those of us that believe in fair play this was a hollow victory. This was very much like fighting a worthy opponent with one arm strapped behind his back – it leaves a bad taste. There were rumours about Mr Lawrence’s impartiality before kick-off from a lot of ex pat South Africans now living in Australia but we tend to dismiss these conspiracy theories with a grin. Certainly, Mr Lawrence’s performance on the field did nothing to dispel those theories. His performance was nothing short of abysmal. He did not award the bok try because of a dubious forward pass. I have looked and looked and to me, anyway, it did not look forward. Minutes later when the boks once again breached our defences and were well on the way to scoring another try, he called them back for a forward pass. If the first call was contentious, there certainly was nothing wrong with the second one. Here, I must ask – why not use the “eye in the sky”? An impressive expensive piece of equipment that should be used for such decisions.
 
He failed to penalise Pocock for slowing the ball down. If we had played like that against the All Blacks, they would not have been so quiet about it. – and rightly so. In the dying minutes of the game he was in full view of at least 2 high tackles by our boys that went unpunished. Any of these transgressions, if properly acted on, would have surely given the game to the Boks with their advantage over territory. To rub salt in the South African wounds, he awarded a high tackle to the Wallabies for a chest high tackle.
 
We won, but did we really? Our sport has always been regarded as a “hooligans game played by gentlemen” – If we do not want rugby union to degenerate into a farce that soccer can become we need to make sure that our refs are of suitable calibre. They need to be trustworthy gentlemen.
 
Mr Lawrence, I would advise against any planned holidays to South Africa for a couple of years.
 
Chris Davis
 
The Australian

Bryce Lawrence must be one of the worst  referees of all time. Bad refs have plagued many rugby world cups – but the Australian South African game must rate as one of the biggest messes created by a rugby world cup referees. What gets right up my nose is that bad refereeing is often just ignored – what does the governing body think that we, the public, are idiots! I must only presume so. Maybe we need a witch doctor or a sangoma – perhaps a bit of African witchcraft is is needed to stop such a fiasco happening in the future. Certainly depending on the IRB is not going to help us – they do not know how to admit to failure and treat the rugby viewing public as a cash cow only – my thoughts – what if South Africa were to pull out of the IRB – to form another league – although with SARFU’s record of politics, smoke  and mirrors it is unlikely we will do any better.

Wow – this is gonna be one smoking team that goes to the rugby world cup – 13 of the original squad from the last world cup – I cannot wait. The All Blacks have a great team – but when it comes to depth you cannot beat the South African world cup squad. The win against the All Blacks last week shows some holes in both sides – while our defense is almost where it should be – our ability to get over the try line is in question.

In saying that – we are red hot in most other departments – The Springbok squad showed their power at scrum time and we held our own in the line outs. Regarding the rule changes – South Africa is going to have to work a bit harder – the changes are small but the affects big – if we do not get it right – ooooh ahhhhh – go Bokke. springboks, Bokke, world cup rugby, team for world cup,

It’s that time again boys – Cricket world cup… and it’s going to rock and roll. The Proteas are in good shape – even if they lost the last 20 twenty against India. We say goodbye to Makhaya Ntini. Makhaya Ntini who played his last match – what a boytjie! I had a tear in my eye – Wow the fans love this man – and for good reason. I’ll certainly be glued to my TV, now and for the rest of the one day series in South Africa against India The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup will be the tenth Cricket World Cup and will be hosted by three South Asian Test cricket playing countries: India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It will be Bangladesh’s first time co-hosting a Cricket World Cup. The World Cup will use cricket’s One Day International format, with fourteen national cricket teams scheduled to compete. The World Cup will take place between February and early April 2011, with the first match to be played on 19 February 2011 with co-hosts India and Bangladesh facing off at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka.  The opening ceremony will be held on 17 February 2011, two days before the start of the tournament. The Opening Ceremony is set to be a must anticipated beginning to the much awaited Occasion. The Opening Ceremony with take place at Dacca Stadium the national stadium of Bangladesh. Expectations are out of the roof as once again the Indian sub-continent will host this great tournament. The World Cup was also supposed to be co-hosted by Pakistan, but in the wake of the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team in Lahore, the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to strip Pakistan of its hosting rights. The headquarters of the organising committee were originally situated in Lahore, but have now been shifted to Mumbai. Pakistan was supposed to hold 14 matches, including one semi-final. Eight of Pakistan’s matches have been awarded to India, four to Sri Lanka and two to Bangladesh. And lets not forget the world cup rugby in New Zealand – go bokke! The Springboks will be our African Symbols, let them beat that African Drum once again. world cup cricket, cricket in  Proteas, Graham Smith, South African Cricket, cricket draw, TV schedule, Proteas, world cup cricket, cricket in South africa, cricket, cricket scores, cricket tv, when is south africa playing.