Rugby

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Ireland just beat the All Blacks who stuck 54 points on Wales. So much for rugby being our so-called national game. Maybe we'd better change it to netball!!
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Wales just squeezed past Fiji who played most of the game with 14 men and were down to 13 for 20 minutes. Personally I thought Fiji were great and could well have won with a full complement. Seems to me that Wales have to put in an awful amount of work to get anywhere in the next World Cup.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Casting an eye over the Sale Sharks team to play the Ospreys I was amused to see the following players in the Shark's squad:

Robert du Preez
Jean Luc du Preez
Dam du Preez
JP du Preez. Are there any du Preez left in South Africa?

In addition they had:

JV Rensburg
Lood de Jager
Coinie Oosthuizen
Nick Schonert

Injured and not playing were:

Faf de Klerk
Cobus Weise
Akker van der Merwe. Are there any PLAYERS left in South Africa? :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:

That's ELEVEN Saffers playing for Sale at the moment! Osprey's coach, Toby Booth, drily mentioned that, when the Os play Sale, one or two South African accents might be heard. No Kidding!! o_O

The Sale coach when asked why so many Saffers at Sale, replied that they were polite, easily coached and, with the exception of Faf de Klerk, were all MASSIVE!! This I can believe. I've posted before that when I lived in SA, I had a neighbour called Willie Davel who played for Northern Transvaal. Willie had five brothers, all of whom also played for NT. Thing is, Willie was the shortest brother and he stood 6ft 7"!! But what really shocked me was when I attended Willie's wedding and saw his bride for the first time. A Charlize Theron look-alike, she was 6ft 1" and what with the other guests, I felt like Gulliver in Brobdingnag, the land of the giants. I wonder how tall Willie's kids are now?

Of course, the Boers are of Dutch descent and the Dutch are known to have the highest average height in Europe and arguably the world. Apart from South Africa of course. :)
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
I was fortunate enough to live in a luxury complex for a while called Bedford View. There were 3 tennis courts, 2 swimming pools and 2 squash courts with elevated spectator seating all for the exclusive use of the residents. When I left Swansea I played squash at the Leisure Centre where you were allowed ONE session of 45 minutes per week and had to book the court for the following week the minute you finished your session. If you didn't the slot was gone - and it was expensive.

At Bedford View the courts were immediately below my apartment and you could jump onto their roof from the Juliet balcony of our lounge if you were daft enough to want to do it. Thing is, I could play squash as often as I wanted and the cost of the courts and all the other facilities was included in the monthly rent complete with maid service. We frequently held squash parties where everyone took turns to play in between boozing, eating and dancing! It was a tough life. :D

The air-conditioned apartment was huge, offering more space than many houses in this country. The lounge was 32ft x16ft with parquet flooring plus two huge bedrooms, the master with a large full size en-suite, a second bathroom, kitchen and utility room. I had basement parking with an express lift to my floor and there was a laundry and drying area on the roof for the maid to use.

And now for Gary. Our Mr Player designed the Bedford View golf course, played there often and the course bordered the living complex. Residents enjoyed heavily discounted club fees, or green fees for those who just wanted to play the odd round. Honestly, when I returned to the UK it seemed as though I had come back to a Third World country, particularly when I compared health facilities in SA which were light years ahead of the UK at the time. But that was then and things have changed now, unfortunately for the worse. But I won't get into the reasons why here.
 

JackBarSteward

Key Player
I know a South African from 1Para. After finishing 8 years he went back to the family farm.

Not even 12 months later he was back in Britain and rejoined the regiment because he felt it was safer than staying put!!

Now that's telling!
 
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