TIGHTHEADS & LOOSE BALLS
REMEMBER Ras Dumisane, who assaulted our ears with a horrendous rendition of the national anthem the last time the Springboks played in France? His name resurfaced in a press conference on the eve of yesterday’s test when Bok captain Jean de Villiers was asked if his team would be prone to similar distraction. “Well, as long as you’re not singing,” De Villiers said.
DE Villiers is usually all charm and diplomacy, but even he had reached the end of his tether with a journalist who had been peppering him with bizarre questions on tour. On Friday, the journo asked him about his involvement in a test in 1995 which of course raised eyebrows. Afterwards De Villiers reminded the journalist, the most experienced in the travelling media corps, that his questions on tour were shocking.
IT didn’t quite require a call to the office of Inspector Clouseau, but when money goes missing from a hotel room occupied by a celebrated Springbok, the whispers in the corridors are deafening. Fortunately the small amount of cash was soon recovered from a chambermaid. Tightheads didn’t think French chambermaids had it in them.
SPEAKING of missing money, Saru chief executive Jurie Roux has kept a rather low profile over the past couple of weeks. He usually treats the travelling media to lavish dinners but, to be fair, he has had an awful lot on his plate of late.
WHEN the Boks arrived on Monday, a gunman had been terrorising Paris. He walked into the offices of a newspaper and shot a photographer’s assistant before fleeing. With the gunman at large and knowing his dislike for the Fourth Estate it was with trepidation that the South African media contingent entered the Springbok press conferences — at the Paris Press Club.
FOURIE du Preez’s departure from the Bok squad caused a stir this week. Not just for how it happened, but also how it was reported. The tetchy Bok management contacted Tightheads to set the record straight. They insist the decision to allow Du Preez to go home was not made after the Scotland test.