Too much pasta and red cards: Boks take over Italy
TOUR DIARY, WEEK THREE: The Italy week was interesting to say the least.
I was based in Turin for the first three days, while the team happily enjoyed themselves away from media focus in Parma, where they trained at Zebre’s field.
It was a relaxing week ahead of yet another tumultuous game, which left Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus in doubt as to where to go from here with the host of two-metre locks in his squad and their tackle dynamics.
While the week in Turin saw sunny days and working from my hotel room in a very residential area of Italy, it all of a sudden got hectic on Friday at the captains’ run.
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I was refused entry into the stadium for the training session and was left standing in freezing conditions with the weather having changed overnight to cloudy, windy and rainy.
A friendly Italian journalist offered to make a few calls, and I was told that I would be collected but only promptly at two o’clock. My explanation that I needed to be inside a head of schedule, like the Springbok media advisory states every week, had no effect.
Eventually, the bus arrived and disappeared inside the stadium.
The team’s media manager, Zeena Isaacs, rushed out to fetch me, grabbed my bag and together we ran through a myriad of corridors to get onto the field as soon as possible.
The media can only get footage of the first 15 minutes of training, which left a small window to get some shots that our social team can use.
Rassie’s team selection confused the heck out of the Italians, with no replacement hooker on the bench. During the captain’s press conference on Friday afternoon, assistant coach Mzwandile Stick was asked if flanker Kwagga Smith would go on in the No.2 jersey. He tried to explain the dynamics, but I’m not sure, with the language barrier, that it made sense to them.
And then, of course, it was another red card, and not to be outdone by the referee in the game against France, a yellow was dished out to the ire of Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus.
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Walking into the post-match press conference, it was clear he was fuming inside, but had to keep his cool, especially as he couldn’t talk about the refereeing at all, the ban from a few years back definitely in the back of his mind.
But once more, the resilience of this Springbok team, who just get on with whatever is thrown at them, made South Africa proud again.
And the more time I spend with this team, the more I realise how very special human beings they are. Everything they do is with the mindset of making their country proud.
It is a mindset instilled by Erasmus, whose influence on South African rugby can’t be overstated enough.
