Sephaka’s fitness shame
30 Jan 2007
Lawrence Sephaka’s professional contract should be torn up and he should not be allowed near a professional rugby squad again.
Sephaka is into his sixth season of Super rugby and every year he does not make the initial team because of a fitness problem. Why can every other prop in the five regional squads be at an acceptable fitness level, but a guy capped 20 times for his country cannot make the necessary fitness?
Sephaka has been involved in Jake White’s Springbok squad for the last two years. He grosses an income in excess of R1million a year and he can’t be considered for the opening round of the Super 14 because he is not fit enough.
In a year where there is so much emphasis on ethnic black players making White’s Bok World Cup squad, it is unacceptable that two of White’s ethnic black Boks won’t start the Super 14. Sephaka’s exclusion is down to the player’s own unprofessionalism and obvious lack of desire to succeed as a professional player.
Solly Tyibilika’s exclusion, though, is another matter. Tyibilika couldn’t make the Sharks squad, despite playing test rugby for White last year. And now he can’t make the Lions team. Three players, none close to the national set-up, are keeping him out of the team. The official line is he needs more time to adapt to his new environment. Forget that he’s been there since last November.
White will be forced to pick both players in his World Cup 30 and neither will be a liability in the games against the United States and the other minnows South Africa plays at the World Cup.
But the entire country will know White has picked two players who are not even considered good enough to make a regional team. Tyibilika must get the message now: He is not rated in Durban or Johannesburg. It isn’t his fault.
For Sephaka there can be no such sympathy. He is a player who every year has the same issues. He was flown to Cape Town from Johannesburg in 2002 and put on a special conditioning diet. He was made a member of the Stormers and never played. He was flown to Durban from Johannesburg a few years later and put on a special conditioning diet. He was made a member of the Sharks, but never got to play a role. For the last two years he has consistently been on the fringes of the match 22 of the Cats or a bit player in the match 22. Conditioning has always been the excuse.
Well enough is surely enough. In any other code he would have been axed and had his contract ripped to shreds.
Because he is ethnic black should not mean he is allowed to remain in the comfort zone of the past six years. Transformation fails in our rugby because white coaches don’t believe in black players. But those coaches are given more licence when players like Sephaka do themselves the greatest injustice.
Sephaka should be ashamed of himself that he’s once again feasted on the Christmas turkey because he makes anyone who has fought his battle in the past look like the biggest turkey.
403 Comments
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [9] Show All
31 Jan 2007, 13:40 pm
400! Staal, jou grapjas. Ek lag nog steeds oor daai volstruis-hoender van jou!
31 Jan 2007, 13:42 pm
pietman,
ja dis darem wragtag ‘n skande dat ‘n Springbok rugbyspeler jaar-in jaar-uit afgesonder (op sy eie fiksheids progam moet volg) word om hom te verseker van n plek in die bokspan.
Kinders sal altyd melk drink!!!!
31 Jan 2007, 13:45 pm
#389 Dee Dah,
i’ve got nothing against tackler. i’ve been visiting this blog for a long time and i’ve seen the abuse he’s copped from a lot of people. and i’ve never had anything to say about any of his comments.
i’m not the type of person to jump on any bandwagon buddy.
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [9] Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.