Maybe a disaster is what SA rugby needs

YOUR first sight of the summit of Kilimanjaro is usually on the first night of the climb. When you arrive at the start the peak is usually shrouded in thick cloud and the first day is spent trekking through the rain forest.

You camp, first, on a low ridge, having come through the dense jungle and, because there are many different teams together at the start, you sit and chat, eat and rest, looking forward to your sleeping bag. Suddenly you hear loud gasps and expletives and you look upwards and are scared. Very scared.

The cloud has cleared and no picture or video in the world gives even an approximation of the sheer size of Kilimanjaro. At that moment you feel like an ant facing a giant skyscraper. You feel that to reach that distant summit, sparkling in the moonlight, is simply impossible. You sleep the sleep of the despondent. However, like eating an elephant, you take it one bite, or step, at a time and, on reaching the summit, you know, through your tears of joy, that you have achieved something that will live with you for ever.

From the start of your preparation you are also warned that altitude sickness is not an annoying nuisance but a dangerous thing that can affect even the fittest individuals in different ways.

Martina Navratilova and soccer star Robbie Savage, to name but two, had to be rushed off the mountain in distress.

There is a story that the same happened to Sir Edmund Hillary, but, of this, Google seems to have no record.

Kilimanjaro is not a hike in the park, it is not the poor man’s Everest. It is a unique challenge that, if met, represents a genuinely impressive achievement.

Now is not the time to point fingers of blame at the Trek4Mandela team. It is a time to learn lessons and, in honour of Gugu Zulu, to make such a tragedy less likely to happen in future.

Strict rules have to be set beforehand and adhered to without question. I hope it was just a freak accident of life and not due to negligence but, as in climbing mountains, let’s look forward not backwards.

Hamba kahle, Gugu. The tragedy puts things like sport into perspective. Yes, we all want to win, but it is not life or death is it? However, the importance of sport is that it gives us an escape from the rank side of life. So it is not insignificant.

Here is a worrying question to consider. (This is written before the Brumbies play the Highlanders, but I ask it anyhow.) Is the best thing for South African rugby a Kiwi clean sheet this weekend?

Did you watch those two top games last week? The Hurricanes beat the Crusaders well in Christchurch but it was the quality of play that was the noticeable thing.

Both sides’ players seem to know instinctively what the best decision is at all times. They shift targets as a matter of course but also break up predictability with foot passes, high bombs and driving play from the forwards. The stars star, but so do the no-name brands. They could select four or five different players in each All Black position with little resulting weakness.

You look at almost every single player on view and you could see him playing in the Springbok jersey with distinction.

Could we say the same for just our top players? Would they be good enough to make the All Blacks? Forget potential and size. In modern rugby, how many of our Boks, let alone standard Super Rugby players, would make the All Blacks? This is the point.

The second game, between the Highlanders and Chiefs, was different but no less impressive. This was a war and the defences ruled. The level of controlled, and sometimes, uncontrolled aggression was frightening. However, once again, the skill and decisionmaking stood out and made me both scared and a little ashamed. The Boks, and in modern times the Wallabies, used to match the All Blacks. Last week proved how far we have slipped. Do we really accept this?

The insanity of the competition makes it possible that the Lions and the Stormers can win at home but, deep down, we know that if each side played every other side, rather than in contrived conferences, the four top Kiwi sides would have finished in the top four places and, thus, qualified anyhow.

I hope we win a couple but know that this will cloud our view of the summit. Maybe we require a disaster, in sporting terms anyway, to bring about the skills revolution we need in South African rugby.