Ranting about the Blitzboks’ flop, Raving about Warrick Gelant

My rants and raves for Independent Media following the weekend’s rugby action.

TOP RAVE

Warrick Gelant produced that one performance needed to kick down the door to the Springboks No 15 jersey. It has to be his in June. The statistics don’t do justice to Gelant’s impact in the Bulls’s brutal goring of the Sharks. Gelant made six passes, gained 34 metres on attack and completed six kicks.

What the statistics don’t detail is the quality of the kicks, one of which was a grubber perfectly weighted and worth seven points. The statistics also don’t include a player’s awareness of space, pace, off the ball impact and absolute presence in a position.

TOP RANT

The Blitzboks are our favourite team because of what they have achieved in the World Series 7s in the last two years but they’re also the biggest chokers after their failure to secure a medal in the Commonwealth Games. The popularity of the squad should not mask the major flop they were in the Gold Coast. Equally, they imploded two years ago at the Olympic Games.

At least they still left Rio in 2016 with the consolation of a bronze medal, but at the Commonwealth Games they blew a 14-nil lead to meekly surrender the bronze to England that will haunt them for the next four years.

For my other rants and raves for the weekend visit iol.co.za