Tightheads & Loose Balls
● Tightheads caught up with Bulls coach John Mitchell this week and notes about our 2017 end-of-year activities were duly exchanged. The fit Kiwi said he returned home, would you believe, to attend his son’s wedding. Tightheads told him it’s tough to picture him as the father of a groom; unless his son got out of the blocks early.
● The word ’epitome’ has a way of tripping up South Africans in different walks of life. It was Lions coach Swys de Bruin’s turn when he tried to talk up prop Jacques van Rooyen’s contribution to the franchise. Van Rooyen, you see, played his 50th Super Rugby match against the Sharks yesterday. "Jacques is typical of what we stand for here at the Lions," noted De Bruin. "He’s for me the epitome, e-pit, what’s that word, you’re good with English," asked De Bruin as he turned to chuckling captain Warren Whiteley.
● Some members of a Lions fans group who attend almost every home match descended into the red mist this week. Hoping to secure tickets for yesterday’s Super Rugby clash against the Sharks they discovered that ticket prices were up and that their favourite seating area was now reserved for members. The Lions upped some ticket prices by 10% while seating for the Upper East Stand is now reserved for members. An official explained that filling up the bottom tier makes sense as it cuts the cost of hiring extra staff for higher up, not to forget that "it looks better on television".
● Taniela Tupou, or ’The Tongan Thor’, has had to make a plea for help after his family home was flattened by Cyclone Gita this week. AAP reports the category four storm destroyed the Pacific nation's parliament building and badly damaged an estimated 40 percent of homes in the island nation's capital. "To simply put it, our house was completely destroyed," said the Queensland Reds and Wallabies prop. Tupou, 21, said that his heart was breaking, having learned the home was "gone" even before the cyclone reached land. Tupou shot to prominence as a 135kg, 18-year-old when he flattened opponents in an Auckland schools competition.