You have to laugh, or you will cry

One has to salute South Africans for occasionally turning to humour amid their misery. There was no better example of this in the aftermath of last week’s “no-arms” tackle of England flyhalf Owen Farrell on Springbok centre Andre Esterhuizen.

Some people took to social media to state tongue-in-cheek that a new pub had been opened in London which was hard to locate, called “Farrell’s Arms”.

One individual also chirped that hooker Malcolm Marx was apparently so frustrated after his off-target lineout throw-ins that he threw his tog bag around in the team bus, but “fortunately no damage was done because he didn’t hit anything”.

This was not the first time that the central figure in this drama, referee Angus Gardner, had made himself an unpopular figure among South Africans, with the Boks having lost four of their six Tests with him in charge.

He was in charge of the Super Rugby final, as well as the Boks’ defeats at Loftus Versfeld and Mendoza this season, and he hardly covered himself in glory.

At Loftus, he allowed an obvious forward pass to All Black scrumhalf Aaron Smith to continue, with a subsequent try bringing the Kiwis back in the game, while Bok captain Siya Kolisi was stamped on at a ruck in front of him. No action was taken.

In Mendoza, Gardner allowed Argentina to kill the ball on the ground non-stop, while he had absolutely no concern for the offside lines at the collisions.

There is no doubt that world rugby should have at least come forward and made a statement about Gardner’s decision last week, especially after Bok coach Rassie Erasmus released a video on coaching the “Farrell tackle”.

What would happen if the Boks did that? They would not be allowed to get away with it.

There have been some remarks suggesting Gardner’s decision was influenced by the 82 000 fans at Twickenham, and he was concerned about falling victim to a furious home crowd.

But my favourite “fake news” piece of the week was on the ‘appointment’ of former Bok pivot Butch James as the new defence coach for the national team.

Apparently World Rugby issued an “apology” to James for the 37 red and yellow cards he was shown during his career.

James had supposedly responded by saying he “always attempted to wrap his arms around the tackle and that it wasn’t his fault the opponent wasn’t there anymore when he made that attempt”.