Reality bites

A LARGE portion of players today are not born with rugby in their veins.

Generations back the grandfather was a Springbok, the father was a Currie Cup winner, and the uncle played for Province.

I was brought up in a rugby environment, privileged to be sent to a good school which only played rugby. I played in the under 12A, 13A, 15A, 16A and 19B and rugby grew on me.

The players who have gone overseas are the very guys who have rugby in their hearts.

As a result of this transformation, players are being picked in our national team who never grew up with rugby and haven’t got it in their blood. Skills and experience only develop over years with lots of hard work, the correct coaching and training.

It’s going to take generations for this culture to grow into the families of players who have lately been introduced into this great sport.

In 1994 I achieved a childhood ambition and that was to see the Springboks play the All Blacks in New Zealand. I thought at that time that we were a rugby-loving nation, but discovered that the New Zealanders are crazy about rugby. They dream about rugby and the Saturday of the Test shops close and there’s only one thing on people’s minds – that’s the husbands, the wives the children the whole nation – and that’s All Blacks, All Blacks, All Blacks.

I’m 78 years old and it hurts like mad to see our national team putting up such a dismal performance, but I’m wrestling with the reality it ain’t going to come right soon.

Certainly not in my lifetime, maybe sometime in the distant future… Donald Paterson Cape Town