The reggae singer who sang South Africa's national anthem in Toulouse has now been blamed by Naas Botha for the Springboks' 20-13 defeat.
Ras Dumisani's performance of the usually stately Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika (God bless Africa) before the Test, which France won, had some of the visiting players battling to hold back laughter.
But others, like former international fly-half Botha, reacted with anger, calling the performance an "absolute disaster" and suggesting it had a hand in the World Cup title-holders defeat.
"It was shocking and definitely didn't assist in creating a calm atmosphere for the team, as it should have," he said, speaking to the newspaper Business Day.
"Someone has to be taken to task for this disaster."
South African radio phone-in programmes were swamped by callers accusing Durban-born Dumisani of "butchering" the anthem, which is based on a hymn that became a freedom song during the apartheid era.
Over 200 people had also joined a page on social networking site Facebook called "Ban Ras Dumisani From Ever Singing Again" by Monday.
French-based Dumisani, who has several albums to his name and is popular in Europe but little-known at home, blamed his equipment.
"They (the match organizers) gave me an old microphone - a very old one," he told Johannesburg-based 702 radio station on Monday.
Dumisani also explained that his monitor - a device that allows performers to hear how they sound - was very old and discordant.
"The orchestra also played the dirge-like tune too fast," he said.
"I was not feeling good because I felt they wanted to sabotage my concert.
"I want to apologize to all the people at home. I find myself disgusted."
Comments
ShaghaiDoc says...
Maybe we should make the referee sing the anthems and do the Haka!
Posted 10:51 17th November 2009
jacques says...
Smoke screen, anyone?
Posted 23:07 16th November 2009
rugbymick says...
The singer was picked by the SA embassy in France.....
Who is to blame. It is typical of them to blame somthing other than a great French performance for their loss. Even the singer, who the other day said he was delighted with his performance now says it was the equipment that made every thing bad. As for Naas Botha, the less said the better.
Mark
Posted 21:29 16th November 2009
slick says...
Brilliant!
So, according to Naas Botha, all you need to do to win a test match is ruin someone's anthem. Forget training, planning etc - play reggae and the opposition are finished!
Have you noticed, however, that Dumisani called the SA anthem a "dirge like tune" (see above)?
Posted 13:14 16th November 2009
abrad says...
Ras clearly did not prepare properly end of....
Naasty Botha is not quite fair to say it hand a hand in the Boks defeat. They are pro players and have been booed many times and still came out trumps. There are only 2 facts here. The singer was woefully unprepared and unsuited. The French were the better players on the night. Move on now.
Posted 09:11 16th November 2009