THE RASSIE ERASMUS SELECTION QUESTIONS — A FANS' INVESTIGATION
Okay nahh, before this thing gets outta hand 😭
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THE CAPTAIN WAS AVAILABLE AND THEY LEFT HIM OUT: Ellis Park Just Proved Why Siya Kolisi Is Still the Soul of the Springboks — The Scrum Worked, the Power Was There, the Opportunities Came, and Somehow South Africa Still Fell Apart Without Its Captain
We want our fucking captain back.
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THIRTY YEARS OF WAITING, FOUR TESTS, ONE HUNDRED AND TEN MATCHES OF HISTORY, AND IT ALL LANDS AT ELLIS PARK ON SATURDAY
The All Blacks Have Finally Come Back to South Africa for a Proper Tour — Their First Since 1996 — and They've Walked Into a Country That Is Ranked Number One in the World, Holds the Heaviest Win in the Fixture's History, Owns This Stadium 9-6, and Has a Head Coach Who Brings Retired Referees to Press Conferences: The Complete ScrumAtMe Dossier on Rugby's Greatest Rivalry
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THE FASTEST FORWARD SOUTH AFRICA KEEPS PRETENDING IT CAN’T SEE
Now listen up, gang — every so often this country builds a loose forward so quick the broadcast cameramen file a formal complaint, and then spends the next eight years staring straight at him going “sorry, who’s this?” That is the whole Hacjivah Dayimani story in one breath, and it does NOT begin in one of those manicured rugby greenhouses where the U14 A-team gets a team psychologist, a nutritionist and a smoothie bar.
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SUPERSPORT EXPOSED: THE HAKA THEY TRIED TO DELETE
Now listen up, gang, because this is the word on the street right now — it’s all over the chats, everybody’s talking, and like all the best ones it starts with something beautiful and ends with somebody frantically deleting the evidence.
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FROM WORLD CHAMPIONS TO A CAUTIONARY TALE — The Fall of the Wallabies
Australia are two-time world champions. Hold onto that, because everything from here reads like fiction if you forget where these people started.
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THE POWDER, THE PANEL & THE PART-TIME PHARMACISTS — ScrumAtMe’s Deep Dive Into English Rugby’s Long, Sniffly History With The One Drug That Makes You WORSE At Rugby — Part One: The Union
Listen up, bro. Sit down.
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THE HISTORY-MAKER PICKS THE HARDEST HOMEWORK ON EARTH: Vusi Moyo, 20, Is Handed the Sharks No 10 Jersey and Pointed Straight at the All Blacks in Durban on Tuesday Night, Because Nothing Says ‘Welcome Back to Club Rugby’ Like Being Told to Marshal a Backline Against the Most Feared Team on the Planet Under the Kings Park Lights
Somewhere in Durban a 20-year-old is ironing a No 10 jersey and whistling like a man who does not fully understand what is about to happen to him.
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FORTY-FOUR YEARS OLD AND STILL GETTING RECRUITMENT CALLS FROM THE ENEMY: Ma’a Nonu, a TWO-TIME World Cup-Winning All Black, Is Named on the Hollywoodbets Sharks BENCH to Play AGAINST the All Blacks in Durban, Which Means the Great Man Might Sprint On in the 58th Minute and Be Asked to Tackle His Own Legacy
There are throwbacks, and then there is naming a 44-year-old, two-time World Cup-winning All Black on your bench to play AGAINST the All Blacks.
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SEVENTEEN-TEN AND EVERY SINGLE POINT PAID FOR IN SWEAT: The Springboks Grind Past a Snarling Argentina in Buenos Aires on a Cameron Hanekom Try, Edwill van der Merwe Finishes a Slick One Before the Break, and the World Champions Win ‘When Nothing Is Working’ Just as the All Blacks Roll Into the Republic
A 17-10 win that felt like doing your taxes with your fists.
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THE CAPTAIN LASTS TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES AND A WHOLE COUNTRY FORGETS HOW TO BREATHE: Siya Kolisi, in His First Game in Seven Weeks, Pulls Up With the Same Hamstring and Limps Off in Buenos Aires, Leaving His Availability for the All Blacks Series Opener Dangling Off the End of a Scan Result
Twenty-five minutes.
Read full story →THIRTY-EIGHT TO TWENTY-ONE, AND THE SCOREBOARD IS TELLING A BAREFACED LIE: The All Blacks Open Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Tour by Surviving a Gallant, Ill-Tempered Stormers Scrap in Cape Town, Deadlocked at 14-All Deep Into the Second Half Before Three Late Tries Dress the Win Up in a Suit It Didn’t Earn
Thirty-eight to twenty-one looks like a hiding. Do not be fooled — that scoreline got dressed in the last thirteen minutes and is now walking around town pretending it earned the suit.
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THIRTY YEARS IN THE MAKING, FOUR TESTS, AND A CHEEKY LITTLE DETOUR TO BALTIMORE: The All Blacks Rock Up for Their First Proper Tour of the Republic Since 1996, Rassie Names a 43-Man Army to Gather in Joburg on Sunday, and Then — With the Straightest Face in World Rugby — LOANS Five of Those Same Okes Back to Their Franchises to Go and Bully the Tourists First
Thirty years.
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