Lions diary, day thirty
As the tour moves on to the business end, it's been noticeable how business-like everybody has become.
As the tour moves on to the business end, it's been noticeable how business-like everybody has become.
One month on from touchdown in Johannesburg airport – remember the 'welcome to Bok country' T-shirts? – there are a lot of tired and homesick people among the travelling party, who now number some 250 as the media surrounding it all has swelled.
That is certainly nothing to do with the weather, which in Cape Town has been as foul as anything thrown up by Britain and Ireland's ubiquitous Gulf Stream. A 75km/h wind, carrying driving rain and hail and pounding the coastline with 10m waves. Thanks very much, but that was one aspect of home we were all trying – and managing quite well – to do without.
But, leaving aside the obvious disappointment after Saturday's Test defeat and Tuesday's draw with the Emerging Boks, the grim mood could be something to do with the ongoing lack of razzmatazz surrounding the tour. The empty stadia, the lack of interest from the locals, the isolated moments of crime that have popped up to dog the touring fans.
The issue of the empty stadia has taken on proportions of a diplomatic incident now, with the Lions' issue of a statement about ticket pricing on Tuesday.
Tickets for the series have been catastrophically expensive, with provincial matches costing almost as much as a Tri-Nations ticket and Test tickets costing more than they would back home, in a country where poverty is evident on every corner.
People have been casting around for someone to blame after the unthinkable became reality on Saturday: a Lions Test that was not a sell-out. That blame won't stick to the Lions, who have pointed the finger quite sternly at their South African counterparts with the following statement from Lions Chief Executive John Feehan:
“The South African Rugby Union and its provincial Unions had sole responsibility for the setting of ticket prices for the British & Irish Lions tour and the Lions management had no input whatsoever into any of this.
“The Lions did appoint official overseas travel agencies to service the requirements of travelling British & Irish Lions supporters. However, the tickets for this programme were purchased at full price from the South African Rugby Union by the British & Irish Lions.”
“It is true to say we are very surprised at the level of the attending crowds. The Lions only visit South Africa every 12 years and it is therefore disappointing that the stadiums have been far from full.”
So what have the South Africans done in response on Tuesday? They let loose with a falsehood of epic proportions at Newlands, announcing the official figure at 39,400. That would mean the stadium would have been four-fifths full, which anyone, even the most die-hard one-eyed local will tell you, is a statistic produced from a deranged imagination.
So how did they get to this 'official' figure? They added the number of walk-in tickets sold onto the number of season tickets sold at the start of the season, assuming for business purposes that all the season-ticket holders had turned up. On a stormy night like this? Not on your nellie…
Maintaining that theme of weather for a moment, picture this if you will. You are offered a comfy ride to the stadium for the match in an executive bus, which you graciously accept. You meet your bus three hours before kick-off. The bus moves on and up through the rush-hour traffic up the lower slopes of Table Mountain, which is being buffeted by that storm I may have mentioned.
The bus then stops. The engine stops turning. A crunch, a grind, a strange smell of burning ensue, but no sign of the engine's low growl. The bus driver and our hostess kindly beam at us, apologise, and ask us to get off the bus while we wait for a replacement. The wind howls, carrying the first icy droplets of an ugly squall in its maw. Scowls cross the brows of all present as we are quickly drenched by mother nature's finest. The long day wears on…
Finally, I would ask you all to watch the replay of Willem de Waal's equalising kick and drop us a line telling us whether you really think it went over. Be honest now. Please.
Journal kept by Richard Anderson