SA beat the Lions - 2nd Test

The second Test was over-shadowed by the Schalk Burger incident but it was refreshing to see one of the Lions players, Martyn Williams, come to his defence, saying what a top oke he is:

"We haven't really had much to do with them yet, because after the first two Tests we have pretty much gone straight back to the hotel. But there is a big dinner after Saturday's Test, so we should have more of a chance then.

"Schalk Burger is a gentle giant off the pitch. But from previous experience, they are really nice people. Obviously they want to win on the field, but I have met guys like Schalk Burger and John Smit a couple of times, and they are gentlemen.

"Once the game has finished, we forget about it and move on. The week before I played with the Baa-Baas in London, we went out a couple of times and Burger was a top guy, an absolute gentleman. So I was very surprised by what he did last week.

"It was a heat-of-the-moment thing that he probably regrets. I am sure if he had his time again, he wouldn't have done it."

Personally I was gutted when I saw it - he's been my favourite player since I watched him play at my university - and while I admit he's over-zealous in his eagerness to tackle, grab the ball or run over people, he's never been dirty, despite what some British and Irish 'fans' might think.

In truth, I'm glad to see the back of the Lions - O'Driscoll whines way too much for the most injury-prone man in international rugby and it seems every time these okes lose, they have an excuse. It was like that in New Zealand when they were so comprehensively outplayed that they only spoke about a spear tackle for the next four weeks - as if that was the reason they got humiliated!

Now it'll be the 'the Boks are thugs' story - as if the Lions were little angels. Please. Go home and play in your little six nations.

We'll play with the other tough guys of world rugby.

Emma Bridget

Well here she is - Emma Bridget Valkenburg was born at about 7:30 on Wednesday 1 July.

She weighed 3.9kgs and is already 51cm tall - no wonder Cath was being skopped all over the place.

She was born naturally via a vacuum extraction while mom had an

epidural (that wore off on her left side halfway through the night).

labour was long although officially, I don't know how long.

I can tell you that contractions started at about 2am of the previous

day and we went into hospital at 7 only to be told that Cath

was only 1cm dialated (needing to be 10 to push)!

A few hours later not much had changed and so later that eve, now with cath only 2-3 cm, the doc broke her waters to move things along.

We got about 2-3 hours of sleep that eve and the next morn Cath was 10cm and ready when the doc came round.

WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT MORE THAN ONCE!!!!!

is what I have to say on the subject.

Cath had a body full of endorphins to get her through but me... frankly I'm still shattered.

I saw things no man should ever see.

As re our little Emma, named after Catherine's baby sister Emma, I can tell you officially that she is the most gorgeous creature in the world. She looks like her mom, which helps of course, and has won my heart hook, line and sinker. I was told that babies often look like their dads at first (as a way of showing them the child is theirs most likely) but this one has Cath's nose, lips and apparently, though I haven't seen it yet, her mom's dimple too.

Awesome. I fell in love with that dimple about 10 years ago and now I have another one to look forward to.

Cath would try and help the baby along (when still preggies) by standing up and walking around. In these moments, I stole her bed and wouldn't give it back... mmm - so comfy - the nurse thought this was shocking and took a photo as proof. I think it was shocking too... look at her... just standing around when clearly Ineed a cup of tea. Honestly. Lazy bitch.

They wouldn't give us this chart, so we took a photie of it. The top squiggle set is the baby's heartrate and the bottom one is a record of Cath's contractions. please note - off the charts on a few occasions. The ones when the pain went up and then flatlined at the top for a good few seconds were the bastards. It was tough, but I managed quite well. What's the big deal with this pregnancy thing huh? Easy peasy.

The tough ol mom. Nothing gets the better of Cath. She's ready to do it all again.... but what's the hurry huh?

Ah the bliss - all over, Cath enjoys her first meal in yonks.
Mmmm - toast!

Three generations of Heany (now Valkenburg) girls.




Proud Dad with the precious cargo.



Ag noonie man!

Wrapped up warm-like.

SA beat the Lions - 1st Test

Well I have to admit, I haven't wanted SA to win a Test series as badly as this in a long time.
I suppose it was cos I knew the okes at the Irish Examiner would be giving my SA friends there a bit of stick if we lost, but also because of the hype around the whole tour.

A while back Supersport.co.za did a vote - would you rather beat the Lions and finish bottom of the Tri-Nations or, would you rather lose to the Lions but win the Tri-Nations? Over 60% said they'd take a loss to the Lions. Simply put, the Tri-Nations is more important to most fans. I found this surprising, I mean, a Lions tour only comes around every 12 years. But I suppose the answer is also apparent in the stands: These Lions games have been very badly attended. I would go so far as to say that it has almost been like the Boks have been playing away.

This is not only down to lack of interest, but the harsh price of tickets, which to your average Brit (or Irishman) is simply ice-cream money. Locals can't afford tickets and, rather than seeing overpriced hype, can wait for the quality of the Tri-Nations for a fraction of the price.

The way I look at it, four countries combined should be thumping the opposition, not losing 3-0 to New Zealand or losing matches in SA.
I know a lot of people thought the SA provincial teams would thump the Lions though, and this was just silly. The best of four countries versus the B sides (all the Springboks taken out) of the provinces! Come on. That many of the sides came close was good, but the results should never have been in any doubt.

It was great to see the Springboks beat the Lions and silence any doubters about the strength of the game in the southern hemisphere.

Obviously we know how strong it is, we play in the Tri-Nations every year, but had the Lions won the series, we would have heard the same argument that we heard after the French beat the Kiwis at the World Cup - that they are just as good as us, that their domestic competitions somehow compare, etc, etc - as if a forward pass match-winning try suddenly means that the northern hemisphere are better than the Kiwis!

But as re the series, we certainly made it tougher than we should have....

In the first Test, when leading by about 19 points, we took off five of our players to give the others a chance, probably thinking we had the game won. Well that almost cost us but it should never have been that close. Reading the comments on the bbc.co.uk/sport 606 webpage, you would have thought the Boks were the lucky ones. People bemoaning the ref, bemoaning selections, bemoaning the inexperience of their own team.

Then in the second Test, we went 10-0 down when down to 14 men cos of Schalk's brain-freeze and missed about 11 points with the boot. Thank God for potty-mouth O'Gara.

Another interesting article I found about him...

http://www.supersport.com/rugby/columns.aspx?id=7802&headline=What%20goes%20around%20comes%20around

Cath at nine months and one week

So if you saw the tummy tracker in a previous post, you'll know that I was missing one picture - the last one, hopefully! Here's Cath bursting at the seams. Hospital is calling...



She's bloody gigant-enormous!

That bloody stupid Cadburys gorilla

Crappy advert:

Aaaagh! That bloody stupid Cadburys gorilla has followe me to SA. I thought I had left stoopid bloody adverts behind me but no, this one somehow snuck in.

I'm really chuffed by the quality of the TV adverts here in SA actually. They're normally pretty funny - but this bloody gorilla is a waste of my time. I keep watching to see if maybe I've missed something - maybe there is something to this advert - but no, each time I simply realise - No - it's just a man in a gorilla suit playing the drums.

Go home monkeyboy.

Emerging Springboks @ Newlands

Bill and Ted's. Sorry, make that Buff and Al's rugby adventure.

So after getting a freebie to the rugga by a buddy, Buff, I got to watch the (British and Irish) Lions against the emerging Springboks at Newlands on a cold Tuesday night in cape Town.

Buff's a lawyer so his company have a block of seats - but they weren't interested in the Lions so he offered me a ticket.

The Lions huddle together to generate body heat. Very clever.

Free trip to Newlands! Yes please. Cath got to go watch a few Super 14 games but I had to work then so this was justice as far as I was concerned.

The Lions hadn't been particularly convincing on the tour apart from a game against the other Lions team who had sacked their coach on the eve of the game. Otherwise, against second string teams, they had scraped home on more than one occasion.

I wasn't optimistic for the home side's chances - the emerging Boks, by their very make-up, cannot field any player who has a cap for the Boks (the senior Bok team that is - they can have played u21 for eg).

But they came good, showing the depth of SA rugby once again.

In a rare display here, the ref shows that he did in fact, have another arm, and not just the one that penalised the Bok team all the time. Note that f%^&ing Lions scrumhalf pulling our oke's shirt - no wonder we beat them up, the whiney little tossers.

As has been the case with all the Lions games, there were more Lions supporters in the crowd than local supporters. Probably on account of the overly-priced tickets which were aimed at milking the pound and euro paying public, as opposed to the rand paying public.

These photos, which I went and blurred - sorry okes - shows one of the particularly red sections of the crowd.





But this one shows the other problem - lack of interest in many Lions games. Even the Tests weren't sold out - something that never happens for Tri-Nations games! This was due, I reckon, to the high ticket prices, but also the fact that most of the local teams had their top players made unavailable for the matches. This entire stand was pretty-much empty below.

Fittingly enough, the Emerging Boks got a draw out of the game, although they would have won had they not been penalised earlier for only God knows what. The kick was from the touchline , in the pouring rain and was the last play of the game - the hooter had already gone. Pressure.

And Willem de Waal slotted it to get what for the EB's seemed like a win, and for the Lions, seemed like a draw. Below, the players swamp the kicker.

In the ned, the Boks ended in a huddle, as the Lions had begun. Ag cute man.


----------------------------

Afterwards I read this piece from Bobby Skinstad's blog:

"

I have been mulling over an incident at the Emerging ‘Boks game in Cape Town on Tuesday night.

Ronan O’Gara was the appointed skipper for the Lions and as part of his ‘skipperly’ duties attended the coin toss. He arrives with his hands in his pockets and calls tails, he then loses the toss and walks hands in pockets away before Dewald Potgieter has had the chance to even indicate his preferences. Alain Rolland stood stunned for a moment before turning to Dewald, shakes Dewald’s hand and wishes him luck.

Now I have two reliable sources telling me two completely different opinions about the man is question – I have none, don’t know him or anything about him but am disappointed by the incident – it doesn’t fit in with the behaviour of the touring party and I would be interested to hear what you think.

"

http://www.supersport.com/rugby/bobskinstad/columns.aspx?id=7762

Yollie wedding

Yollie and John got hitched!

There was love in the air in Stellenbosch - and I FINALLY got a day off to go and witness it. It was peeing down but we drove out there, lugging our presents to them.

The church was stunning as usual and there were these cute lil flower kids to gooi a few petals, despite the weather.



Then to the reception, surrounded by vineyards... had to grab this photie.

Yep... love in the air alright.

Cath was at this stage, about nine months preggies. We were finding out where the nearest hospital was actually. Is there a doctor in the house? Yes. Oh fine then.

So Cath's not bad for nine months of baby on her.



First dance...

Still first dance.
All these cake photos, makes you wonder who had the camera at this point huh?

Hmmm... wonder where they got this idea from...

Sharing the cake...

Cath's (borrowed) dress from behind.

A few laughs at our table...

Janine and Andrew,
Bertus steals a kiss from Bertus
Yollie joins our table for a bit.



Janine and Andrew and us go way back, but it was the first time I'd met Bertus... really cool chap. He's promised us a bottle of champagne or 3 when his wine comes through.

Gooi-ing the bouquet...

... and the garter.

Careful Al - she's a married girl... and John is bloody huge.

Cath and Janine were all smiles at seeing each other again after such a long time.