Deceit, dishonour and injustice

They came from the right, shadows slowly firming to darker more defined shapes and finally the unmistakable form of the great beasts as they padded along… elephants making their way to a water hole in the Kruger Park.

As always I sat in awe as I watched them siphoning water up their trunks to drink or spray on their bodies, the calves gently nudged to stay in the cordon of safety, a sudden blast on their inbuilt vuvuzela to indicate irritation.

As always I wondered what would happen if I were to step over the low electric fence to approach them; as always I marvelled at the indescribable experience of being in the park and the vision to have preserved such a heritage and as always I broke one of the rules of a visit to the bush and paid for it!

And the rule is “never miss a game drive, because you never know what you’ll be missing.”

On the last morning I elected to sleep in to be fresh for the long drive home and the others who pulled themselves out of bed to join the drive ended up seeing lions and, the rarest of the rare, a leopard.

This came to mind as I battled to pull a spirit that could have stayed at the wonderful Imbali lodge for another six months, perhaps forever!, back into work mode by connecting with cellphone and SMS messages, downloading e-mails and back-tracking on the web.

And, to put it lightly, I was blown away by how much can happen when you do what wild animals do and quietly melt away into the bush.

Most of the early messages involved Jaque Fourie and yet another shocking piece of injustice handed to a South African player – a rugby story overtaken by the horrific dishonesty that accompanied the ghoulish drama surrounding the unfortunate innocent Caster Semenya.

Then there was the simply scandalous situation of the ICC cricket award nominations not containing a single South African. Boy that made my blood boil!

Good news tales such as James Kingston realising a lifetime dream by winning the Mercedes golf championship in Germany; Tiger Woods doing what only Tiger can do, the Argentine Pumas finally being sent an invitation to swell the ranks of the Tri-Nations and the Currie Cup once again setting passions on edge were lost in the outrage.

The handling of Caster Semenya’s case was, in a word, a disgrace – plumbing new depths of incompetence, self-interest and dishonesty in a sporting landscape in which, after 40 years, I thought there was no more that could surprise me.

At the time of writing (Sunday evening) “Lying” Leonard Chuene had not yet resigned – perhaps the most reprehensible aspect of a sordid episode in which few, politicians included, emerged with any honour.

But back to Jaque Fourie. To say I was gobsmacked when I discovered what happened to the Springbok centre would be putting it mildly.

In my notes on the test match in Hamilton I had not made an entry that there might be a problem over his tackle on Ma’a Nonu and checking the PVR recording of the match showed why.

The incident did not, as stated in most news reports I was able to google, happen in the 70th minute of the match but at 73min 43sec (I trust that is not a reflection on the accurateness of the citing officer). Nonu failed to hold the ball, was lifted and dumped by Fourie but with time running out the action was frenetic and the All Blacks were cranking up the pace.

No penalty was called by referee Nigel Owens, the incident was not flagged but Nonu did emerge with an abrasion, which started to bleed, below his left eye. The Kiwi television director however was clearly onto it because the incident was shown again; causing SuperSport commentator Matt Pearce to remark, “that’s dangerously close to a tip tackle but he did put him down gently,” and Bob Skinstad to reply “as gently as you can in a test match.”

There’s obviously a drive to come down hard on so-called “spear tackles” but the incident and the severity of the punishment yet again proves that South Africans’ dissatisfaction at the treatment of our players by rugby’s judiciary goes well beyond the paranoia that is often a by-product of the fervour engendered by rugby.

There is just too much proof that South African players have not received equitable treatment at the hands of citing and judicial officers.

What rankles about the Fourie incident is that the citing commissioner was a bloke named Scott Nowland whose rugby qualifications, incidentally, do not pop up on google.

He is the same official who cited Bakkies Botha for a dangerous clean-out in the second test against the British Lions, while missing (and refusing to have a look at video tape of) Andrew Sheridan punching Andries Bekker in the testicles and Brian O’Driscoll headbutting Danie Rossouw, and who at Hamilton failed to cite Joe Rokocoko for taking out Bryan Habana in the air and Kieran Read for a shoulder hit on the Springbok wing.

Funnily enough my notes, which are quite comprehensive, contained an annotation about an incident in the 16th minute, just before Morné Steyn dropped his goal, in which Brad Thorn flung Tendai Mtawarira to the ground without the ball and then ground his elbow into the prone Springbok’s head!

This is not to say that South African players are angels. Test matches are primal affairs in which the element of physicality is driven to an extreme pitch and in which to take a step back is tantamount to conceding defeat.

Nonu was the All Blacks’ dangerman and Fourie went in hard to snuff out the threat he represented – his intention being to stop his chunky opponent in his tracks; to knock him back. It was a do-or-die situation and the Springbok succeeded.

However the replay shows that Nonu’s legs ended up above his waist and the blood running down his cheek once again raised the question over whether an injury escalates the severity of a citing.

So let’s concede that Jaque Fourie, incidentally a man with no previous record of foul play, deserved to be censured but how is his misdemeanour different to what Brad Thorn did to John Smit? Or what Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu did to Brian O’Driscoll? Why are the penalties handed out so disparate? That’s what I would like explained.

South Africans have long been dissatisfied about the inequities of the judiciary process (as far back as the 1994 tour to New Zealand) and I’m afraid SA Rugby must shoulder some of the blame for not long ago creating a working group, including the heads of referees and disciplinary procedures, to put together a well-reasoned, well-illustrated objection to the blatant inconsistencies that have occurred.

The system is horribly flawed and South African players always seem to get the short end of the stick. It is time we challenged the IRB’s judicial system. It is time we said no more because there certainly is no “Justice 4 All!”