SA Rugby aiming high, albeit from a low base
SA RUGBY this week unveiled their new partnership with FlySafair in the dusty back roads of Kempton Park. The unveiling happened in a hangar where a Boeing 737 resplendent in company and Springbok livery proudly stood on display. A few Springboks were in attendance and they dutifully posed for pictures with air hostesses from the airline on the stairs at the rear of the plane. In his speech, SA Rugby president Mark Alexander got a little excited. “We are taking to the skies, thoroughly enjoying the journey literally and figuratively.” That seems an awful lot better than the recent turbulent times that led to R23.3-million deficit.
SA RUGBY’S new partnership reminded Tightheads of the difficult times the Lions went through not too long ago. Sponsors quit in their droves but gradually through fiscal discipline and hard work behind the scenes that translated into good performances on the field, the sponsors came back. Now the Lions have arguably the world’s biggest airline as their title sponsor. Most sponsors still tell SA Rugby to fly a kite.
ONE official who is likely to be travelling on the SA Rugby account sees at least one benefit flying with their new preferred domestic carrier, albeit for his own narrow agenda. “At least now I don’t have to walk past the SA Rugby fat cats in business class on my way to the back,” the official joked about the airline’s classless cabins.
THE Lions did not want any distractions ahead of their big derby this weekend against the Sharks. It was requested of the assembled media at Thursday’s team announcement press conference that they refrain from asking questions about coach Johan Ackermann’s possible move to Gloucester. Halfway through the presser, one journalist who arrived after the request was made ventured carefully. “Coach, I would not be doing my job if I didn’t ask . . .” Ackermann looked a little bewildered before Lions chief executive Rudolf Straeuli, like a grizzly who had just witnessed a salmon wriggle from his clutches, typically curtly said “No”.
A CAPE Town-based rugby journo seemed to have hit a nerve with the folks in Gloucester when he rather animatedly suggested in an online video that Ackermann “is too good for Gloucester”. The journo said Gloucester were “not a top European club” and that their “prospects were bleak”. Gloucestershirelive.co.uk defended the honour of their town and county by hitting back: “Gloucester are one of the top clubs. It is a rugbymad town and with the guidance of Ackermann, he can put them back to Europe’s top table.”
HATS off to the “Adopt a Lions fan” campaign in New Zealand. With accommodation limited and prices having skyrocketed ahead of the Lions’ tour, Adam Gilshnan set up the Facebook page where his fellow Kiwis “open their doors to ’adopt’ a Lions fan”.