Peter Church

I watched the first half of Saturday’s rugby match between South Africa and England before taking a cold shower. Based on what I’d seen from Heyneke “I don’t care how we play as long as we win” Meyer’s charges, I thought it preferable to simply catch the end score. Poor English goal kicking and a jammy […]

World champion showdowns involving a South African cricket team don’t pass this way often. In the limited edition of the game, the South Africans have always managed to extricate themselves well in advance of the grand finale. With the number one spot beckoning, hosts English waited with a confident anticipation. A miserly three test series […]

I’ve travelled this old world of ours from Barnsley to Peru, I’ve had sunshine in the arctic and a swim in Timbuktu, I’ve seen unicorns in Burma and a Yetti in Nepal, And I’ve danced with ten foot pygmies in a Montezuma hall, I’ve met the King of China and a working Yorkshire miner, But […]

The All Blacks are world champions and deservedly so. But I have to admit I got very excited when Le Bleus (wearing white, how were the jerseys this WC? England: looking like All Blacks, playing like England!) started working them over in the second half. Once again, in spite of consistent world domination during the […]

As Frik du Preez might have said: We take their line-out ball, we smash them in the scrums, we kill them in the rucks, but the score still says Ozzies. Keo had a lot to say about it in his column: “I haven’t met a South African rugby supporter who didn’t tell New Zealanders that […]

If betting odds are any indication, then New Zealand will play England in the final of RWC 2011. The weekend’s results have caused a major shuffle at the New Zealand TAB. While Australia and South Africa remain as second and third favourites respectively to win the tournament, their odds of making the final are now […]

Unlike the Fifa World Cup where even a favourite team can be eliminated in the pool stages, the outcome of rugby’s premier tournament is far more predictable. The winner must be one of New Zealand, Australia or South Africa, with England and France in with an outside chance. Odds on the sixth favourite team, Ireland, […]

The faithful will be ecstatic, the doubters unconvinced as the Springboks retained their record of never having lost to the All Blacks in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. It was 41 years since Dawie de Villiers’s Springbok team smashed All Black dreams on the unyielding ground at Boet Erasmus, but I am sure that Hannes Marais, […]

The Wallabies don’t often win in South Africa, but Durban must be their favourite city. Three of their only four away Tri-Nations victories against South Africa have been played at this venue. Fourteen-Nine. The Kings Park clash was a low-scoring, tight affair, two closely matched sides slugging it out for honours. What a pity that […]

I was watching my son’s rugby team play Kasselsvlei on Saturday morning and so I missed the televised All Black/Springbok Tri-Nations clash at Westpac Park in Wellington.  The night before, I had chuckled at a Facebook warning sent to a friend living in New Zealand: “Don’t go near Wellington tomorrow, Rob. They may put you […]

Stranded in an empty stadium at Edgbaston on June 17 1999 and agonising over the tied cricket match that ended SA’s championship hopes, someone had a vision of the future: it’s World Cup 2011 and Alan Donald’s punching the air and high-fiving with ecstatic colleagues. There’s light at the end of the tunnel! But wait. […]

I secretly rejoiced when Springbok coach Peter de Villiers was cleared of misconduct charges related to comments made during a Fox TV programme. It probably irked our Australasian friends intensely that the presiding authority was a South African based judicial officer acting for Sanzar. PdV’s comment that maybe it was the right thing for New […]