British & Irish Lions Tour: The Hunter Becomes The Hunted.

It distresses me to no end to witness the reckless and negligent manner in which rugby in South Africa, and especially the Eastern Cape, is being mismanaged.

If South African Rugby were a parent and the Eastern Cape a child, Child Welfare and Social Services would have been called in a long time ago.

It seems that the Springboks and their set up could be fair game and an endangered species on this Tour if they are unable to gel as a unit. There is much parochial and partisanship sentiment that runs like deep fissures through the Springbok camp that could find them caught completely unawares on Saturday the 20th. These fissures could mean that they suffer a defeat from a potent cohesive and spirited Lions unit.

A mauling of sorts, if you will, as it will be ugly and many preconceived notions of superiority and strength will be fractured. What's this you say? Pause for a moment and think how nature is totally unforgiving of a wounded and incapacitated springbok, be it with a sore foot, sore leg, age, sickness, or any other ailment.

These injuries, invariably put the springbok at the back of the herd and the predatory Lion, invariably with a skilled eye in sussing out the weak and infirm, zeroes in on these animals for a quick kill. So too then, if we, or our opposition, are something of a strategist, we would surely consider the weak and infirm of the opposing side we are due to play in seven days.

Well if you are plotting the demise of the Springboks, how could one overlook, the torn calf muscle of Schalk Burger, or the torn groin muscles of Jean de Villiers and Ruan Pienaar. Fourie du Preez and Jaque Fourie also come off injuries and these all have to be aggravated in the field of play on Saturday.

But therein lies the danger, as if anything could mobilize and marshal the Springboks, is a mauling by the Lions that would see a ding dong battle on the 27th of June in which the hunter becomes the hunted.

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