Tightheads & Loose Balls

● It is a saga that has sunk deeper into the realm of the bizarre. You are probably aware by now that Griquas boss “Oom” Jannie Louw and his mob saw it fit to strip Deon Carney and Joe Molale of their Under-18 Academy Week coaching jobs because of their support of the All Blacks. Turns out Molale got reinstated after switching allegiance to the Springboks, but Carney told them to go fly a kite. Surely swearing allegiance cannot be done over the barrel and Griquas, who incidentally have Namibian Breweries as a major sponsor, should know that Molale’s pledge is as hollow as Kimberley’s best-known landmark.

● Still on the untransformed, Roodepoort Rugby Club’s motto on their website’s home page is more than a little misleading. “Celebrating 75 years of defying all odds, through skill, not force,” while elsewhere proclaiming to be “one of the leading open clubs in South Africa” as well as being a “bastion of excellence that has stood the test of time”. Well, we’ll be damned. That doesn’t sound like a club whose players last week allegedly used the k-word as part of an attack on Wanderers Rugby Club players. Their actions are likely to have severe consequences, especially if Golden Lions Rugby Union president Kevin de Klerk’s strongly worded statements are anything to go by.

● It is quite a fall from grace for the club who were national club champs in the late 1980s. You have to wonder what former Roodepoort players like Garth Wright, Ian MacDonald, Balie Swart, Adriaan Richter, Robbie Blair and Pieter Hendriks make of the current crop.