St Luke slays Loftus louts
9 Mar 2009
Keo, in his Business Day newspaper weekly column, writes of a player’s triumph and defeat at Loftus.
The Stormers lost in Pretoria but Luke Watson definitely won against a Loftus crowd whose game plan lacked imagination and was devoid of all invention.
The crowd behaviour was as abysmal as the quality of rugby and indeed it was Watson who seemed to intimidate the near 50 000 voices by simply accepting their challenge of continued booing by asking if that was all they had to offer.
It reminded me of former All Blacks wing Jeff Wilson toying with the Newlands crowd a decade ago. Wilson, playing for the Highlanders in the Super 12, was jeered the first time he touched the ball, but midway through the match he was begging the crowd for a reaction as he scored his third try.
With both hands reaching for both ears he gestured for increased noise levels, as he could hear nothing coming from the crowd. It was hilarious and the vocal bullies had nowhere to turn but to further embarrassment. What did these morons do 10 years ago in response to Wilson’s third try? Predictably they booed.
It was the same in Pretoria. What else did the louts of Loftus have to give? Nothing, and when Watson calmly robbed Pierre Spies of the ball in contact and fashioned another clever turnover all the crowd could respond with was another boo as effective as South Africa’s cricket challenge in recent weeks against Australia.
The humiliation belonged to those attempting to ridicule.
Watson, like many of his fictional heroes in the Bible, thrives on confrontation and conflict. Adversity is another must in his working day, as is being condemned by those non-believers of freedom of speech.
In going to Loftus, all the above elements were script guarantees for the stereotype of the persecuted and defiant Christian and naturally, armed with self-belief and backed by God, Watson prospered.
The Loftus crowd, many of them believers of Christianity, misread the contest because effectively they were doing battle with one of their own, but whereas they lacked conviction in their application of resentment, Watson was committed to his stand of defiance.
Watson, disgusted at wearing a jersey with a Springbok emblem on it, is not popular for saying so. He is even less popular for calling South African rugby a game run by Afrikaners, even though there has never been a disciplinary to confirm if he ever did utter the supposedly wicked word ‘dutchmen’.
Watson, the public relations man, is a boring project because his rants and contradictions are as predictable as the Loftus crowd booing. His rugby, though, has more enterprise and is powerful.
He has never produced a Test performance of authority, but his international career has been brief and conditions and playing circumstances cannot compare to the environment of Super Rugby, which is a world made for the skills of Watson.
His Super Rugby pedigree cannot be disputed. Whether you despise his personality or revere him, he can play Super rugby and in Pretoria he did a damn better job of it than local hero Pierre Spies, who for all his athleticism still goes into mute mode when the Bulls tight five engine can’t get out of neutral.
Watson in the one-on-one match-up outplayed Spies, which does not mean I’d pick him ahead of Spies for the Springboks. I wouldn’t, but to dispute Watson’s superiority over Spies at the weekend would be a betrayal for anyone gifted a healthy set of eyes.
Watson is a clever player, whose athleticism is matched by an ability to read the game and by good skills. He may physically struggle in contact but his mind never battles to go forward.
These factors helped him beat the Loftus louts, but because of his persecution complex about being a privileged white Watson in a black South Africa these factors are meaningless in Watson’s fight to beat out of himself the need to be a South African rugby martyr; liable for the actions of those who lived in an era he has only ever read about.
Watson, the rugby player, won in Pretoria, but it is Watson the rugby player who never wins in Watson’s world – and that will always be the tragedy of a player whose world does not allow him to simply be a rugby player.
1,045 Comments
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9 Mar 2009, 18:50 pm
#646 AB: Hey AB……time to get urself a car.
9 Mar 2009, 18:50 pm
#643 SpringbokSarah: Nope. Is it there?
9 Mar 2009, 18:51 pm
Ek het net twee vrae:
1. Het Luke saterdag gespeel ?, en
2. Wie is Luke ?
9 Mar 2009, 18:52 pm
#647 Isigidi:
Mense kla oor ENIGE program, dis deel van die show. Solank hulle genoeg het wat steeds kyk, worry hulle nie oor die een of twee wat kla nie.
9 Mar 2009, 18:52 pm
#646 AB: Imagine what the horse feels like!
9 Mar 2009, 18:52 pm
And why is the piel blacked out but nothing done to protect the poor female’s dignity.
9 Mar 2009, 18:52 pm
#653 alf:
Al wat ek van Luke af weet is:
Hy dra kouse en het gaaitjies onderbroeke
9 Mar 2009, 18:53 pm
#650 I wanna be coach: have you still got that picture?
Mine’s in storage
9 Mar 2009, 18:54 pm
Hierdie artikel van keo is een van die snaakste artikels wat ek nog gelees het.
Watson het glo Loftus geklop, maar Stormers het verloor ?
Dit laat my dink aan daai rugbyspelers wat altyd goed lyk NADAT die fluitjie geblaas het … wanneer dit nie werklik saak maak nie …
9 Mar 2009, 18:55 pm
#652 racheltjiedebeer: I don’t know! I’m 15 I really don’t want to see Joost or PDV’s *** tapes
9 Mar 2009, 18:55 pm
#656 racheltjiedebeer:
hehehe – maybe he just has a black….
Funny that the whole Joost saga is all over the papers and blogs etc. but Naka cheating ons his wife with a friend’s wife barely gets mentioned.
Both are wrong.
9 Mar 2009, 18:57 pm
#654 Supa Die Bloubul: Pap snoek met wurms as jy weer kom kuier! Jou dametjie kan wel steak, wors en slaai kry. Hehehehe
9 Mar 2009, 18:57 pm
#659 alf:
Die snaakste van Keo se artikel is dat hy se die skare het nie geweet wat om verder te doen behalwe boo nie. Wat de hel kan hulle anders doen??!! Iemand het vanoggend n mooi antwoord gegee, sal kyk of ek dit kry.
9 Mar 2009, 18:59 pm
#661 Supa Die Bloubul:
haha – glo nie ek sal eers snoek kry nie. Daai klomp in die Kaap brag alewig oor hoe goed hulle vis kan braai en as ek kom kuier dan maak hulle vark??!!
9 Mar 2009, 18:59 pm
Hilarious stuff in this thread.
I must try this.
If I think something hard enough in my head, then it must be true, and I will believe it to be true.
Facts will no deter me.
Aaah dementia, so under-rated.
9 Mar 2009, 19:00 pm
#663 Supa Die Bloubul: Wat hulle altyd op loftus doen. Vrouens slaan mekaar terwyl die mans hande klap
9 Mar 2009, 19:00 pm
#659 alf: Jy’s ok snaaks. Ou grapkas!
9 Mar 2009, 19:01 pm
Waar is Skop? Hierdie thread gaan hom ‘n permanente h—-n gee.
9 Mar 2009, 19:05 pm
#666 K9 Pavement-special: So die naweek is ‘n grote daar in die Wes Kaap op nuweland.
9 Mar 2009, 19:05 pm
Shooter so comment vandag oor keo se die skare was uit idees uit:
63. shooter :
March 9th, 2009 at 10:39 am Keo in his business day article make it sound as if the crowd had other options.
What?! Send in a streaker tackler? Smuggle in Vuvuzelas? Throw the players with naarjties? Alternate booing with rhytmic clapping at first, then 2 minute silences ala Indina crowds, do a synchronised stadium mooning of Luke? No Keo, they booed. Because to any crowd in the right context, it’s the most fun thing to do.
Maybe most of the crowd even had a good laugh afterwards. We all did. I think it was a good release valve for all the supporters, and it will probably be easier going going forward.
9 Mar 2009, 19:06 pm
#669 Ed_the_Lion: Jis jis Ed!!!! Stormers sal hul game moet lig as hulle enigsins ‘n game wil maak daarvan.
9 Mar 2009, 19:07 pm
#666 K9 Pavement-special:
Vroue slaan? Praat jy nou weer van jou hero Earl Rose??
9 Mar 2009, 19:08 pm
#671 K9 Pavement-special: Ek stem saam. Was maar ‘n boring naweek sonder ordentlike rugby.
9 Mar 2009, 19:08 pm
#671 K9 Pavement-special:
Wonder of die twee ondersteuners by die Cokeblik Luke sou geboo as die game daar was…
9 Mar 2009, 19:08 pm
#651 K9 Pavement-special: Geld is op!
9 Mar 2009, 19:09 pm
#673 Ed_the_Lion:
Hoop net daai “ordentlike” span van julle trap die bergies Saterdag..
9 Mar 2009, 19:09 pm
#674 Supa Die Bloubul: natuurlik, hy verdien dit!!
9 Mar 2009, 19:09 pm
#676 Supa Die Bloubul: ek ook Supa..
9 Mar 2009, 19:10 pm
#675 AB:
Lekker AB! Hoe gaan dit?
Die spanne is seker bly die Bulls het n loslootjie die naweek ander het hulle nog n verloor in die gesig gestaar.
9 Mar 2009, 19:10 pm
#658 SpringbokSarah: No it pissed me off too much at the time, him thinking he was a super Bok without even one cap. Thats the issue with Twatson, he needs to achieve first and comment or celebrate after. He does it the other way around. Remember it well though
9 Mar 2009, 19:11 pm
#571 cab: So you haven’t seen it? In that case, don’t just diss it. It WAS done by proper historians, incorporating material from SWAPO, FAPLA, UNITA, SADF, ANC, and a whole lot of others. A guy who was quoted extensively was a guy named Piero Gleisjes – google him if you want to.
9 Mar 2009, 19:12 pm
#677 Ed_the_Lion:
Mense se altyd daar gaan min mense na die Leeus se games toe op Ellis Park. Ek daar gaan eintlik baie elke naweek – dis net dat die helfte veilig daar aankom.
9 Mar 2009, 19:12 pm
#679 Supa Die Bloubul: Lyk my Joost se lootjie was bietjie te los.
#673 Ed_the_Lion: Ja eks weer lus vir groot rugby.
9 Mar 2009, 19:13 pm
All we could OFFER?
This is BS. If I could, I would have jumped the NORTHERN MAIN STAND fence AND gave him a good OLD ******** PK, as did the other 15000 fans sitting in that CORNER, Stormers fans included.
Comparing him to RELIGIOUS figures is also INSANE.
He cannot just be a rugby player because he CHOSE to take on a CULTURAL group. Why is this not labelled racism?
This guy really needs to go play in JAPAN.
This guy is NOT a hero. He wants attention.
9 Mar 2009, 19:14 pm
#682 Supa Die Bloubul:
Ek dink jy is reg, want as jy eers in is, is dit veilig. Daai bietjie bang wat in jou is vir die terug ry drink jy weg. Net om daar te kom is die groot storie.
9 Mar 2009, 19:14 pm
#682 Supa Die Bloubul: Ek verkies ‘n lee ellispark bo daai oos pawiljoen van loftus. Torrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeee
9 Mar 2009, 19:15 pm
#568 hater: I’m telling you, I was there. Was Keo there? Anyway, YES Watson was booed, but was he called a k—fboetie and a s—-l by “The majority” of the crowd? NO, NO, 1000 times no! Ask Richie if he was there and if not, why he would fabricate something he could not know if he wasn’t there!
9 Mar 2009, 19:15 pm
#683 K9 Pavement-special: Ons gaan hierdie een vat.
9 Mar 2009, 19:15 pm
#685 Ed_the_Lion: Nie ‘n plek vir sissies nie.
9 Mar 2009, 19:15 pm
#679 Supa Die Bloubul: Ja almal is bly die bulle rus die naweek! Klomp banggatte!
9 Mar 2009, 19:16 pm
#689 K9 Pavement-special: Is dit hoekom daar nooit Wp ondersteuners daar is nie.
9 Mar 2009, 19:17 pm
#688 Ed_the_Lion: Dink ook so. Die ref het ons gerob teen die bulle..
9 Mar 2009, 19:18 pm
#692 K9 Pavement-special: Moerse gerob. Kan nogsteeds nie verstaan hoekom hulle vir foken Bosch gekry het om daardie game te blaas nie.
9 Mar 2009, 19:18 pm
#570 WP Till I Die: Yes, that’s how things seem to me these days as well. It’s a long discussion and I would like to see Grensoorlog again. That portion of history is important to me and I must say, the ANC isn’t making it any easier. See the cockup that is Freedom park and the whole fiasco with CC’s 20th anniversary.
9 Mar 2009, 19:18 pm
#690 AB: Ja eks bly. Moeg om aan die slaap te raak terwyl ek rugby kyk.
9 Mar 2009, 19:18 pm
#681 hjk: Without paging back what are you talking about, program or written?
9 Mar 2009, 19:19 pm
#685 Ed_the_Lion:
Bwahahaha!
#686 K9 Pavement-special:
Vreemd, ek sou se jy pas goed daar in.
#692 K9 Pavement-special:
Bwahahaha. Die refs rob julle ook elke jaar van al die trofees ne?
9 Mar 2009, 19:20 pm
#693 Ed_the_Lion: Absoluut. En die lynregters het hul gidshonde by die huis vergeet. Jy gesien hoe donner ons hulle op in skrums…….sonder Heinke sommer?
9 Mar 2009, 19:20 pm
#571 cab: About the nukes, Cab: they were dismantled before 1994 and the material was sold to the US. The ANC only sold the enrichment technology to the Chinese.
9 Mar 2009, 19:21 pm
#697 Supa Die Bloubul: Daai oos pawiljoen lyk soos ‘n mullet konvensie.
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