During Ireland's tour of South Africa you couldn't but be struck by the almost daily bloodletting off the pitch in Springbok rugby, but this reached new levels of bitterness this week when Brian van Rooyen, the SARFU president, asked police in Bath to arrest Robbie Fleck for derogatory comments attributed to the former Bok centre in a magazine interview.
Springbok squabbles
Van Rooyen has reportedly taken out a civil action against the player and the article's author, David Mosely, of SA Sports Illustrated, in which Fleck was 'quoted as saying: "We fire one dickhead and then hire another one in the form of Brian van Rooyen. If ever there was a bloody racist, it's that oke. He acts like he is going to be the saviour of South African rugby but he is fucking it up already. We have the original Boswell clown in charge."
Fleck, who cut his ties with the Springboks after a row with the then team coach Rudolf Streauli last year, also had a cut off Streauli and van Rooyen' s predecessor Silas Nkanunu. Van Rooyen has said: "I have made a complaint to the Human Rights Commission because the magazine is available in Britain we are able to pursue the matter with police." Bath's director of rugby John Connolly has dismissed the row as "a storm in a teacup."
Some storm though. Big teacup.
New faces
Still with the Boks, their impressive coach Jake White has brought three new faces into his squad to prepare for South Africa's Northern Hemisphere tour this autumn, which kicks off against Ireland at Lansdowne Road on November 13th, who were not involved in their stirring Tri-Nations success.
Centre Bryan Habana, prop Gurthro Steenkamp and flanker Solly Tyibilika join the side in Cape Town today for a one-day training camp. Also coming into the 30-man squad will be five players not involved in the Tri-Nations victory, including the experienced Werner Greef and Danie Rossouw, who are back from injury. Only two players involved in the Tri-Nations won't be around in November, though they were key components of that triumph, goal-kicking full back Percy Montgomery is returning to Wales to play for the Newport Gwent Dragons and ex-Leicester outhalf Jaco van der Westhuyzen has joined Japanese club NEC.
Connacht make their case
As encouraging as anything else in Connacht's ongoing battle to justify their existence in recent times has been the growth of the game at underage levels and the performances of their underage teams. Long regarded as the whipping boys of underage rugby, three years ago Bart Fannin's under-21s won the interprovincial title for the first time since the 1979 vintage coached by Oliver Burke, Mary Robinson's brother.
The Connacht schools side used to play Leinster A or Munster B (drawn from their "weaker" sections), but now play their true seconds teams, drawn from stronger schools, and indeed beat Leinster last season. On Saturday their under-21s produced one of their best results in some time with a surprise 16-7 win over favourites Ulster, who had put 30 points on Leinster the week before. They are coached by Dan McFarland, Nigel Carolan and Eric Elwood.
All of this is important, because one suspects the would-be hatchetmen at 62 Lansdowne Road are lurking in the long grass, but when you see results like Saturday's, it reinforces the merit of maintaining the province's identity at all levels. Watching Niall O'Brien running in a try on his debut against Munster on Sunday night, it would also have been unthinkable that a one-time Presentation Athenry and Monivea player could make such a swift transition. Ditto John Muldoon and Conor O'Loughlin of Portumna and St Saran's, Ferbane, who were part of that under-21 triumph under Fannin. Worse still that they would ever be denied such an avenue of opportunity.
Tierney back and on form
Out of sight is out of mind, as Tom Tierney knows only too well. It's worth remembering that one of the forgotten men from Ireland's 1999 World Cup campaign is still only 27 but after two idle and forlorn years at Leicester Tigers he's just glad to be home and playing regularly again.
"Last season Dean Richards made it clear that whenever Harry Ellis was fit and well, he would be first choice. I played only 10 games, and five of those were as a replacement. They offered me a one-year contract but Brads (Connacht's Michael Bradley) rang and offered me a two-year deal. It wasn't even an issue. Leicester was a great experience, but I just want to play rugby. I love being back. I prefer the lifestyle. Brads has a good set-up here."
Tierney admits his erstwhile Munster team-mates gave him a torrid time when they beat Leicester in the Heineken European Cup quarter-finals two seasons ago (he was the first of very few Tigers to visit the Munster dressing-room and offer his congratulations), so his accomplished all-round display on Saturday night was redemption of sorts.
Sport on the box
The arrival of Setanta Sports to provide extensive coverage of the Celtic League has to be welcomed (especially as they're also showing Serie A games on Sundays!), even if the messing around of kick-off times pays scant heed to the paying spectators. With Chorus Digital becoming the latest platform to carry the new sports channel over the weekend, the number of Irish homes who can access Setanta Sports is now over 750,000. Chorus Digital subscribers can upgrade to the service for a monthly subscription fee of a12.99 (1890 202029.
