Loose Pass

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with insubordinates, injuries and incredibly bad days…

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with insubordinates, injuries and incredibly bad days…

Northampton seems to bring out both the best and the worst in people: remember the Ben Cohen tantrum when, after years of sweating blood and tears for the club, he suddenly flounced off into the distance in protest at not having been appointed captain.

Then there was the fall-out from the South African revolution, a fall-out which ultimately led to relegation as well as several local players leaving in disgust, among them Matt Dawson.

Now there's the Chris Ashton affair – perhaps it's the fact Ashton is off to a club so strongly linked with South Africa that makes this so unpalatable to the locals too.

Ashton has treated Northampton appallingly. The Saints brought him from league, took the same pressure off him that other places allowed to be heaped on the likes of Lesley Vainikolo and Shontayne Hape, and have fostered him well under a game-plan that suited him. He has returned that parentage with an acrimonious process of desertion which has smacked to the public eye of a deep lack of gratitude and respect.

He clearly knows this. Otherwise he might have been more forthright about this move.

As it is, he has created a rod for his own back, raising the ire of his coach, disappointing a passionate fan base and running the risk of alienating himself from his team-mates. He must now play with team-mates who might doubt his commitment to their cause, particularly if the Saints do come up against Sarries at the business end of the season. And when he does move, he has a lot to prove, for the debate is still open as to whether he is actually that good…

And now the Heineken Cup shenanigans is at an end, it's time to turn attentions to the Six Nations. Except what kind of tournament is it going to be this year?

Not only are the teams – with the glorious exception of Wales – deep in a rebuilding process, they are also short any number of first-choicers through injury.

The only team looking vaguely intact is Ireland, and that's a team with a coach heavily under pressure to inject a little more future vision into his selection. They face the Welsh first up, but that's a Wales side lacking several front-liners as well.

Fact is, the Six Nations will be colourful and as passionate as ever, but in a year blotted by a World Cup, followed by the start of the domestic season, it's also looking like it will be somewhat tired and worn-out by the end. Goodness only knows what the June Tours will be like.

It's about time things like this really got looked at closely. We can understand the horror at this suggestion, but something has to give somewhere. Would it not behoove the northern hemisphere teams to do away with the Six Nations in a World Cup year? Or at least find some way of making sure players don't return from a World Cup, mentally and physically shattered and finding themselves required to raise their intensity for the start of a season before heading into another series of body-busting internationals?

SARU press releases were black comedy central this week.

First off, a press release explaining that some shyster somewhere was booking tables for big SARU parties at fancy restaurants and leaving SARU to foot the bill – using the email address theboks@therugby.co.za. Seriously.

Then came a second press release, explaining that a photo agency had erroneously released pictures of Rassie Erasmus, with the former Western Province Technical Director captioned as 'the new Springbok coach'!

As if that wasn't enough, then came the irritated – and entirely justified – criticism from Peter de Villiers about the staggering length of time it has taken the union to get around to naming a new national coach. Barely a month out from a new Super Rugby season and we're still in the dark.

One can probably assume from all of this the following:

1) Peter de Villiers is not going to retain his job.
2) Rassie Erasmus is going to be in the Bok set-up somewhere.
3) The new coach is going to have a tough first year getting his mission statement across this late in the day.
4) SARU = Secrets Are Really Unkeepable.
5) South African shysters are not quite up to speed when it comes to creating plausible email addresses.

Loose pass compiled by Richard Anderson