Gibberish doesn’t solve Combrinck riddle

The select few local scribes who had the “privilege” to work with former Bafana Bafana coach Joel Santana, would be very familiar with the term “gibberish”.

I can’t recall one interview where the Brazilian made any sense at all. And his broken English coupled with the translated version through a makeshift interpreter – or none at all sometimes – only served to add to our misery.

Then there are other coaches who had been blessed with linguistic abilities, but once you as reporter tried to make sense out of the audio recording in trying to pen some meaningful comment, you realise that “gibberish” doesn’t refer to the quality of the sound or language at all.

It’s all about the quality of the content.

And we’ve got quite a distinguished line-up of masters of this annoying art. Former Springbok boss Peter de Villiers and football coaches Pitso Mosimane and Steve Komphela are the A students of this class.

Don’t discount current Springbok coach Allister Coetzee. Toetie might lack Komphela’s poetic flair, De Villiers’ distinctive accent or Mosimane’s poker face, but makes up for it with his contradictory statements.

In the wake of the incumbent Springbok wingers’ shortfalls on defence, the voices for Ruan Combrinck to return have been growing louder by the week. But Toetie’s not having any of it.

Combrinck hasn’t been recalled because of a lack of game time, was Coetzee’s explanation this week. In the same breath though, he says that Francois Hougaard has been dropped because of his inconsistent performances due to a lack of regular game time at No 9. But, as he so clearly explained, why was Hougaard then selected if he was short on the precious game time that was keeping Combrinck on the sidelines?

Is Coetzee actually confessing that it was a mistake selecting Hougaard? Is he saying he didn’t realise Hougaard didn’t play a lot of his rugby at No 9 in England? Is he saying because of the Hougaard situation, he will not make the same mistake with Combrinck?

The idea of answering questions isn’t supposed to leave the interviewer with more questions than answers.

Coetzee goes on to say Combrinck hasn’t started any of his three matches since going to Japan after the Super Rugby season. But, Combrinck was playing every game for the Lions when he was overlooked when the initial Bok Rugby Championship squad was named after the Super Rugby final.

That is more you can say of Damian de Allende, who hardly played any Super Rugby, but still manage to find his way into every Bok squad.

And what about Bok captain Warren Whiteley? When he is fit again, will he be required to play five Currie Cup matches before he can play for the Boks again? Of course not.

So why must poor Combrinck suffer this fate? The man proved his class on his very first international appearance as substitute against Ireland last year by scoring an epic try at Ellis Park and landing a vital long-range penalty in Port Elizabeth a week later.

They say form is temporary, but class is permanent. And Combrinck is both classy and ballsy.

I hope for Coetzee’s sake his silly statements are temporary, because gibberish is permanent.