We fans are gluttons for punishment

This weekend looks like the perfect opportunity to let go of that male ownership of the treasured TV remote. Not that I have a problem in my household in taking charge of this device.

After all, it’s part of my job to watch rugby and lots of it, but for this weekend’s Springbok Test against old foes the All Blacks, I’d gladly give up that right if I had to.

And it’s not only me, but thousands of Bok supporters who are probably hoping they could watch the happenings unfold in Wellington with one eye closed.

It’s not that we don’t want to watch, because we obviously do, it’s just the fear of the almost inevitable unfolding yet again with the Boks coming up well short against a country with which we used to have a fierce rivalry.

Most of the youngsters currently in the national fold were either just born or too young to understand the game when the Francois Pienaar’s Boks won the World Cup at Ellis Park 23 years ago in 1995.

But alarmingly, since that magic day, the Boks have won just 14 of 53 Tests against the old enemy, and it has been four years since we beat them when flyhalf Pat Lambie struck a late, long-range penalty goal in 2014 to give the Boks a rare 27-25 victory.

Several Bok coaches have come and gone with limited or no success against the All Blacks, which makes the statement of the current national coach Rassie Erasmus this week quite remarkable, after he suggested he would walk away from the job if the team surrendered Down Under.

After all, it’s the first time that Erasmus will face the Kiwis as a coach.

But the heat that has been heading his way after the fourth defeat in seven starts, following last week’s dour defeat in Brisbane, is probably getting to the former Bok loose forward.

Either that or he is employing the regular smokescreen by engaging in fighting talk before taking on the world champions, in order to get the best and most out of his charges who have been limited in both attack and defence this season.

The fact is that the Boks’ direct way is not the ambitious All Blacks’ way, and trying to emulate the Kiwis’ style won’t help the national cause.

But while we are fearing for the worst, it still won’t prevent us Boks fans from watching, even if it is an inevitable result.