Keep those stars in line

It was Bob Skinstad who first started talking about “the stars being aligned for the Springboks” and with the way things have turned out you have to wonder whether the team’s de facto vice-captain is psychic.

Whether, like Jake White, you see omens around every corner or whether you’re unflinchingly pragmatic you have to agree that circumstance has presented the Boks with an ideal chance to win the World Cup for a second time.

White’s preparation is proving to be spot-on, Lady Luck has smiled on the team and the players have embraced the mantra “Now is the time,” – even to the extent of writing the phrase on the first page of their diaries.

There are still three hurdles to clear, much can go wrong and in time-honoured South African tradition the greatest threat to the Boks could well be the enemy within.

In the post-isolation years South African rugby has had a propensity to shoot itself in the foot – there is no other way of saying it – and one hopes that an undercurrent of dissatisfaction in the team doesn’t escalate into a blowout at the most inopportune time.

Players who have signed overseas contracts are still waiting to hear whether they’ll be eligible to play for South Africa once they head for new pastures at the end of the tournament.

SA Rugby’s ill-considered and in all probability legally unenforceable decision to exclude overseas players from national selection has since been put on hold, not yet rescinded, and it is not satisfactory that a good many of the Boks should be trying to win the World Cup not knowing what the future holds.

There’s also the issue of Jake White’s continued involvement with South African rugby, or not. At present the coach’s contract is until the end of this World Cup but the last thing one would want is for it to become an issue, side-tracking the team, just when their focus should be at its keenest.

Oregan Hoskins and all the president’s men, at great expense to the union, are either in France already or getting ready to travel to Paris and one trusts they are ready and willing to do their bit to keep the stars Skinstad referred to orbiting in perfect unison.

Le Journal de la Coupe de Monde

Live by the sword? … Some would say it took too long but the law finally caught up with Brian Lima. “The Chiropractor” loved nothing better than to rattle the bones of his opponents, not always legally, but a dangerous hit on Jonny Wilkinson proved to be one hit too many. Lima, the only player to feature in five World Cups, was cited after Samoa’s match against England, given a three-week ban, and when his appeal failed literally ended his long career in suspension because he has announced his decision to retire after the World Cup. South Africans continue to wonder what made Lima’s attempted tackle on André Pretorius okay and the one on Wilkinson illegal.

IRB gendarmerie: The application of rules and regulations have been consistent for their inconsistency at this World Cup, but policing the Press is something tournament officials are geared to do very well. While the judiciary process has at times been an embarrassment, team numbering at odds with the rules, the breakdown open to as many interpretations as there are referees, the match balls a little weird to the best kickers on the planet plus a failure to put in place the simple device of matching the match clock to the television count-down, RWC security cops have hounded the Press with dedicated precision. One is not allowed to enter the Boks’ training ground until the stipulated time, we’re permitted only 20 minutes of filming before we’re told to leave the barricaded area alongside the field and wait in the clubhouse, or outside the ground, to interview the players assigned to face the Press on that day. Plain clothes police watch our every move and the aforesaid tournament “cops”, in their blue uniforms with free pair of adidas sports shoes, hover over us while we pack up and then escort us out of the ground. After 35 years of covering the Springboks it grates to be treated like a terrorist in the vicinity of one’s own team.

Making this paranoia all the more ridiculous is that at Noisy le Grand we were made to stand in the clubhouse, quite able to see everything the Boks did, while any number of locals without the distinctive World Cup Press accreditation tags around their necks stood outside and watched the practice… needless to say the reporters filled in their idle time by spotting any number of suspicious characters spying on the Boks – Graham Henry with a false smile, Bernard Laporte with hair and John Connolly on the phone to Eddie Jones! But then hounding the Press is one thing rugby officials do well; such as a match ticketing system which without fail requires you to pick up your ticket for the Press box a good kilometer or two away from the ground and the media centre… but enough of the whinging for even the best efforts of petty “ruggercrats” can spoil the celebration which is France’s Rugby World Cup.

More about the ball: Gilbert Rugby, suppliers of the balls being used in the Rugby World Cup, have (unsurprisingly) responded to criticism of their product, basically saying that the like of Dan Carter, Jonny Wilkinson and even Percy Montgomery, the man who’s kicked it best, have got it wrong.

In a Press release Gilbert state that they pride themselves on the quality and consistency of their balls and will have us know the following: “We remain supremely confident in the standard of balls delivered for use in the Rugby World Cup. We will of course re-examine the balls sent back to us by the IRB and will report should any inconsistencies be found however in the meantime, to avoid further speculation, the following clarifications need to be made regarding some of the comments reported by the media:

“All of the balls provided to teams for training prior to the tournament’s commencement and to the RWC Organising Committee for the 48 matches are match balls. There are no “replica” balls – this is a term that has been used erroneously and has been picked up by some media.

“The Synergie match ball has been extensively tested and widely used prior to the Rugby World Cup – amongst others in the 2007 Six Nations, the 2007 Tri-Nations test matches played in South Africa, the Churchill Cup and all Rugby World Cup warm-up matches played by GILBERT’s (their caps) portfolio of national Unions.

“The size and shape of the match balls, questioned in some articles, is 100% consistent with GILBERT’s usual size and shape and has been re-measured and compared with other balls from previous tournaments and international test matches. A 2007 RWC Synergie ball has been measured and compared with an Xact Match ball from the 2003 RWC, a 2005 WRU Xact Match Ball and a 2006 FFR Synergie. All measurements (both length and girth circumferences and “length in line”) were within 1mm of each other. To put this into perspective; 1mm difference in total girth is less than 0.2% difference. In terms of weight, the balls were all within a 4-gram bracket.

“All GILBERT match balls are “pre-kicked” (the mind boggles!) before dispatch to allow the stitch lines to settle and the ball to find its natural shape faster after inflation.” And there you have it. The kickers still say the balls behave weirdly (“like playing in a wind that you can’t work out,” said Wilkinson) and the latest theory is that Gilbert’s “multi-matrix grip pattern,” i.e. the latex nipples on the surface which make it easier to handle, have skewed the aerodynamics of the ball. Stay tuned for the next exciting installment.

Thanks for the memories: Romania's four-time world cup veteran Romeo Gontineac picked up a couple of handy souvenirs following his final RWC match against New Zealand. Wife Lucinda snapped a photo of him with children Taylor and Olivia-Rose and All Blacks captain Richie McCaw and centre Aaron Mauger. Gontineac met his South African partner during his first RWC in 1995 and his children were born in World Cup years 1999 and 2003. His team-mates also presented him with a giant Romanian silk flag emblazoned with his name.

Destination unknown: There was no risk of this pilot getting bored on the job. His plane was sitting at Saint-Etienne Bouthéon Airport in France with a departure time of 10.15am on Sunday. However, the flight destination wasn't known until late on Saturday night, depending on the winner of the Pool C quarter-final decider between Scotland and Italy and he could file a flight plane for either Edinburgh or Rome.

SMS reality: Dropping out of the World Cup is not pleasant, to wit this sequence of SMSs from the IRB’s media service on Sunday:

“Please be advised that the Wales press conference previously scheduled for 13.30 on Sunday, 30 September has been cancelled.”

“Wales will hold a press conference at the Vale of Glamorgan Hotel in Cardiff at 2pm on Sunday 30 September.”

“Gareth Jenkins has resigned as Wales coach after his team failed to reach the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 1995.”

Only a Frenchman: “A team lives or dies on its state of mind – the manager is who creates the team’s morale and Loffreda has imbued the Puma jersey with massive value and meaning for his players. You can’t help feeling that when they put on that blue jersey it is like a man and a woman who are in love but rarely see each other: when they are together they want this time to be the best of their lives.” Thomas Castaignède waxing lyrical in his column in The Guardian.

Boks’ best moment on tour: Riding up front in one of France’s stunning TGV bullet trains to Montpellier and watching the needle hit 300 kilometres just as another jet on wheels came hurtling by going the other way! As one of them remarked: “There’s not a ride at Disneyworld that can beat that.”