Weekend results no laughing matter

There was a joke going around this weekend that “thank goodness the national cricket team weren’t in action on Saturday, because then we would have had three national sport horror stories on the same day”. The joke is not funny for local sports fans. It is accurate. It was not a good weekend for South African sport.

The Springboks lost 23-18 to the Wallabies in a Rugby Championship Test in Brisbane on Saturday afternoon, while Bafana Bafana played to a goalless draw with Libya in a 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Durban a little later. Judging by how the Proteas cricket team were embarrassed by Sri Lanka in a two-match Test series away from home recently, it’s better they weren’t playing this weekend.

Both Bafana and the Springboks produced sloppy performances on Saturday.

The Boks held their own in the first half but failed to score in the second stanza as they crashed to their second Rugby Championship loss in a row, and their fourth in seven starts under coach Rassie Erasmus.

With next week’s Test in Wellington against the All Blacks looming, it’s probably going to get a lot worse before it gets better. The mighty All Blacks have won all three of their Rugby Championship Tests this season, all with bonus points. On Saturday they comfortably beat Argentina 46-24 in Nelson.

With little over a year to go until the World Cup in Japan, Erasmus is none the wiser about his best combinations.

For Bafana it was a case of letting valuable points on offer at home slip through their fingers. The weather was admittedly poor in Durban, but Stuart Baxter’s men needed to find a way to collect the three points.

Instead, missed opportunities resulted in a stalemate.

So, it’s back to the drawing board for Bafana and the Springboks.

They better find their mojo quickly as depressed South African fans desperately need something to cheer them up.