Lucky Maree
LUCKY ON THE BALL: No doubt, the sporting landscape has changed. Possibly for the better, possibly for the worse.
A hundred years ago, men with handlebar moustaches said, if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Today a teenager with a cell phone, iPad and laptop, says, if something is worth doing it’s worth doing to death.
Just over 50 years ago, in 1970 Griguas pulled off a sporting miracle to win the Currie Cup, beating Northern Transvaal by 11-9.
Northers drew from a rich source of players. The army, the air force, the police, University of Pretoria and the civil service all provided talented players, including Frik du Preez and Thys Lourens.
Griquas depended on players who worked for the De Beers diamond mines and just about nobody else.
Mannetjies Roux drove 300 km from his farm in Victoria West to Kimberley for practices and matches, others came from Kuruman and surrounding areas.
And if you weren’t at the packed De Beers Stadium that day, you simply didn’t see the match. You sat huddled round the radio, listening to commentator Gerhard Viviers and you waited for newspaper photographs by legends like Wessel Oosthuizen on Sunday to get an idea of what happened.
But then it was, literally, the only game in town.
In the heavily segregated South Africa of the time, rugby fans, mostly white, loved rugby while the black population watched soccer.
Matches were always, without exception, played at 3pm on Saturday (Sunday being the Lord’s day and no sport was allowed).
Last Friday, those who watched the excellent game of rugby between Griquas and the Blue Bulls would have noticed two things: the way Griguas dismantled their opposition to secure their place in the final was a thing of beauty, and, sadly, that there were no more than about 3,000 spectators in the stands.
What has changed?
Well, everything. Last Friday, there was practice for the Grand Prix, the final of the United Rugby Championships was looming. There were many international cricket matches, a number of motor sports events, many with South African competitors. The local and international soccer scene is hotting up. On Saturday, the Pumas played the match of their lives to beat the Cheetahs. They won their spot in the final in front of empty stands as the fans prepared for the URC final.
Of course, the most significant factor is live television.
Let’s face it. Nobody has to go to live sports anymore. With a fine-tuned remote control it is literally as easy as flicking a switch to watch all the sport as it happens. And better still. Most people have a number of devices and screens and they can watch all the sports they want side by side. Older fans call it “live” television, younger fans would describe it as “real time”.
Only the top matches still draw crowds. The tests against Wales, starting in less than two weeks, will be a sell-out whether the government opens the stands or not. If South Africa gets a Grand Prix, you can bet your last pair of rugby boots that all the tickets will be sold.
Over the weekend an old guy tells me about the first rugby test he went to.
“I went with my dad when South Africa drew with France in 1967 at Newlands in Cape Town,” he says.
He doesn’t really remember the details, but he remembers the emotion – and that, dear sports fan with your five screens, is something you can not replicate in two dimensions.
