AN OPEN LETTER TO THE SPRINGBOK RUGBY CAPTAIN ABOUT HOW WOMEN ARE SHOWING HIM & ALL US MEN HOW THE GAME SHOULD REALLY BE PLAYED

 Dear Siya Kolisi,

         I don’t really approve of women playing rugby because they show up us men so badly. Did you watch the Women’s World Cup game between the Wallaroos (Australia) and the Black Ferns(New Zealand). It was a real eye opener that showed you and us men how the game should be played by passing and running with the ball and scoring TRIES.

         The first half ended with the score Wallaroos 17 - Black Ferns 12. Incredibly the Aussies’ three tries were scored by their wings. When has this ever happened to a Springbok team in an entire match in recent times or ever because you guys don’t play that kind of pleasing to watch game? In fact in the last five years I doubt if our wings have scored a total of more than half a dozen tries, because they so seldom get the ball.

A Wallaroo scoring

         In the same half one of the Black Ferns’ tries was also scored by a wing. I lost count of what happened in the second period when New Zealand ran out winners by 41 to 17, but I’m sure there must have been some wing tries in the Black Ferns score. What could have cost the Wallaroos the game was when they had two players sent off for 10 minutes towards the end of the first half, but this did little to dampen the overall entertainment value of the match.

         Since you and our team won the world cup with a dreary win at all costs brand of rugby that is all brawn and no skill with passing cut to a minimum, a lot of other teams have followed this bad example. No doubt the thinking was: ‘You must have been right if your team won the Cup.’

         After being bombarded with your brand of rugby it was hard to believe that these women were playing the same game. I never saw one box kick or any aimless kick down the middle of the field that in your men’s game does nothing but give possession away and passes the advantage to the opposition. What was most pleasing was that the ball went down the back lines regularly, so no wonder the wings scores all those tries.

         If wings score in your brand of dreary play it usually happens when they get the ball by mistake or have gone scrounging for it themselves. The men’s game formula these days has reduced passing to a minimum; kicking the ball anywhere, usually to nobody in the middle of the field to get it away from your end and thus giving possession away; then, when possession is somehow achieved the use of brute force to battle your way down the field in the hope of eventually scoring.

         It is tailor made to kill the game as an entertaining spectacle.

         It wasn’t only the woman players who made this woman’s rugby match such a refreshing experience because the female referee more than played her part. She cleverly allowed advantage play on numerous occasions to keep the match flowing with the result that unlike in the men’s games you play Kolisi the whistle wasn’t going every five minutes with the accompanying breaks in play.

         Women’s rugby can only go from strength to strength and unless you and the rest of your male players WAKE UP they will overtake you as the preferred brand of Rugby Union to watch.

Regards,

Jon, an avid Rugby critic, who vaguely remembers playing for his school’s under 10 mixed (boys and girls) 1st Rugby team.