Suddenly it’s the big time
AND that was only half-time. By full time it was almost a Murrayfield. Have we ever before dished it out in quite this way? I can’t recall it.
Last week we used a military metaphor of the trenches and the cavalry in a preview of the game. Sure enough, the bugle sounded and the cavalry were in full cry, the backs working in closest synchronisation with the infantry. The driving, rucking, mauling and turning-over, the linking with the backline, were a delight to see. Also the short passing and off-loads – close to faultless. The tackling ferocious.
What a turnaround. For a moment those of us watching in The Pub With No Name, in Florida Road, wondered whether management had not been lacing the beer with hallucinogens.
The Lions didn’t know what hit them from the word go, they never got into the game. As they came back repeatedly to kick off, one sensed bewilderment and disbelief.
The Sharks are a side that has suddenly clicked resoundingly. That click will have been heard well beyond our shores. Anything can happen now.
The Sunwolves this weekend. They’ll find Durban no Pearl Harbor. Then the Queensland Reds. Then off to Van Diemensland and the Land of the Long White Underpants.
’Erewego, ’erewego, ’erewego!
Catcher dog
A BORDER collie in Perth, Australia, has become a hit. A video of the dog – named Stanley – catching a tennis ball went viral.
This earned him an appearance on local news channel Network 10 Perth.
When the interviewer asked him: “So how are you coping with all the fame?” Stanley took the interview in an unexpected direction, according to Huffington Post. He jumped up, grabbed the top part of the microphone in his mouth with a loud “pop!” and scampered away with it.
Ask a silly question…
Security cluster?
INVESTMENT analyst Dr James Greener questions, in his latest grumpy newsletter, the existence of a “so-called security cluster” in government. “What are the threats and risks to whom and what, that require the dozens of opaquely named outfits that infest our public service and feed on the taxpayer?
“The presence of all these agencies and acronyms generally comes to light only when they squabble and bicker among themselves. Are there really foreign forces at work plotting an invasion and seizure of our land and the minerals buried beneath it?”
Greener (whose academic background is actually in physics) calls for a simple diagram to explain the “security cluster” and what they do, in the same way theoretical physicist Richard Feynman produced a diagram to clearly explain what happens in the nucleus of an atom.
“It would be nice for us to be assured that we are getting value.”
Tailpiece
A SCOTSMAN, an Englishman and a gorgeous girl are sitting in a train compartment. The train enters a tunnel and everything goes dark. There’s a kissing sound then a resounding slap.
The train comes out of the tunnel. The Englishman is nursing a red slap mark on his face.
The girl thinks: “He tried to kiss me and kissed the Scotsman instead.”
The Englishman thinks: “The Scotsman kissed her and she slapped me by mistake.”
The Scotsman thinks: “Next tunnel I’ll kiss my arm and slap the Englishman again.”
Last word
WHAT this country needs is more free speech worth listening to.