It’s lights, camera, all action for Gcobani Bobo & co
TIGHTHEADS have to congratulate SuperSport on their new magazine show First XV. It is more interactive and engaging than any of its predecessors. Analysts are up and about delivering all manner of illustrations as they try and get their point across. It did, however, bring a chuckle when Robbie Kempson came to grips with Gcobani Bobo in a mock two-man scrum. Kudos to ’Bobs’ for not getting his peach, tenderpreneur shirt creased.
SPEAKING of SuperSport, Tightheads is sad to report that one of the pay channel’s public relations mainstays, Marilyn Mendelsohn, has left the company. Mendelsohn was not just part of the furniture at their Randburg offices, but was in many ways the face of the organisation.
THE Cheetahs have always been on a quest to be taken seriously. Sporadically, in a rugby sense, they have given us reason to do just that. Their choice of stadium announcer for their Super Rugby opener against the Lions did exactly the opposite. The Bloemfontein bumbler delivered a cringeworthy performance, very much creating the impression that it was the first time he had set foot at a rugby match. He even referred to the late No 9 Joost van der Westhuizen as a former ’losskakel’ (flyhalf).
ENGLAND coach Eddie Jones behaved like an overindulged brat after Italy disregarded the nonexistent offside line in their Six Nations clash at Twickenham last Saturday. Jones decided to be the game’s moral guardian, instead of acknowledging Italy’s out-of-the-box approach. He even vowed to retire if the game’s administrators didn’t put the sport on the path to redemption. He opened himself to ridicule and former England hooker Brian Moore took a pot shot in a tweet when responding to a story that England are considering building a sandpit at Pennyhill Park training base. Moore tweeted: “It can catch the toys they’ve thrown out of the pram about Italy.”
THE quote of the week belongs to Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal in the aftermath of the Ali Williams and James O'Connor cocaine saga. “James made a mistake, and it is difficult to defend. What shocks me most is that we have a Saturday game that is very important . . . and I have a player who was in a nightclub in front of the Arc de Triomphe at 3 o’clock in the morning with I do not know how many grams of alcohol in the blood and who, in addition, consumes cocaine.” Nuff said.
AREN'T the Lions supposed to be nocturnal hunters? Not according to captain Warren Whiteley. He’s happy to see his pride go on the prowl at 3pm rather than 7pm. “When you have those 7pm games, it’s like the day doesn’t want to end. You’re raring to go and you want to play. To wait that long is a problem and with 3pm games, you’re up in the morning, you have your breakfast and you’re already on the go.”
RUGBY has had its fair share of interesting names but none as leftfield as Rights. Yes, there’s a women’s player who goes by the name of Rights Mukhari. She was called up into the South African Select Women’s Sevens team that will be taking part in the Vancouver Rugby Festival.
ON a sad but brave note, our condolences go to Lions and Springbok centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg, who lost his mother Renthia to cancer this week. It would have been easy for him to declare himself unavailable but still had the strength of character to pull on the red jersey and play in his mother's memory.