Kenya: un rédacteur en chef du «Standard» retrouvé après son enlèvement

Au Kenya, un des rédacteurs en chef du Standard, journal quotidien de référence, a été retrouvé sain et sauf mercredi 2 septembre dans la matinée, après avoir fait l’objet d’un enlèvement la veille au soir. Alex Kiprotich a été emmené par des hommes armés aux alentours de 21h30, vers la ville de Nakuru, dans le centre du pays. Le Standard et les professionnels de la presse kényane dénoncent une campagne d’intimidation de la part des autorités.

Somewhere between Cape Town and this Saturday’s third Test, the greatest rivalry in world rugby lost the plot, writes CLINTON VAN DER BERG.

What should be a showcase of skill, courage and brutal physicality has curdled into a playground squabble. He started it. No, he started it. Round and round it goes, and it’s getting harder to watch without cringing

The scrum wars kicked it off, jibes flying from both camps, and it hasn’t stopped since. Coaches who should know better have taken to sniping through the media rather than through their teams’ performances on the field, and it has turned spiteful in a way that feels, frankly, juvenile. This is Test rugby’s biggest stage, 1-1 in a series that deserves to be remembered for the rugby, not the bickering.

RASSIE: We’re not f**king walking around!

And of course, once the coaches lead, everyone follows. Fans pile in. Pundits pile in. Suddenly everybody’s an expert on scrum engagement laws, breakdown technicalities and the inner motives of referees they’ve never met. Social media becomes a courtroom with no judge, just a mob convinced the other side is cheating and their own side is a victim.

Here’s what makes it so galling: South Africans and New Zealanders have never actually hated each other. Quite the opposite. This ancient rivalry has always run on mutual respect, dressing-room friendships, and banter with real warmth underneath it. It’s why we love it.

Boks and All Blacks have grown up admiring one another, tested themselves against one another, and gone for beers together afterward. That’s what made it great.

Somewhere along the way, that spirit has been swapped for grievance and finger-pointing, and it’s a shame to watch it happen in real time.

MALLETT: All Blacks are cheating

Let’s also be honest about something obvious that keeps getting lost: rugby will never be perfect, and neither will referees. A missed call, an inconsistent call, even a bad call, doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy. It means the person with the whistle is human, making split-second decisions at frightening speed.

Getting emotional when a result doesn’t go your way is understandable, it’s sport, it matters. But the theatrics, the accusations, the digs, the endless litigating of grievances in press conferences, that’s just tedious, and it does nobody any favours.

DAAN: Boks don’t want to walk around scrum

This weekend offers the perfect chance to reset. Two brilliant sides, the series in the balance, a grand stage befitting the occasion. Let the players settle it the way this rivalry has always been settled best: with skill, with physicality, and with respect intact at the final whistle.

The circus needs to end. It’s time to let the rugby speak.

Photo: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images

The post Cut the spite, cue the rugby appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.

Former Springbok flyhalf Morne Steyn says the Bok players are in for an incredible experience when they take on the All Blacks in the third Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test at the FNB Stadium in Soweto on Saturday.

Close to 90,000 people are expected to pack out the huge stadium, which hosted the soccer World Cup final in 2010, and has been used for three Springbok matches before – two against the All Blacks in 2010 and 2012, and one against Argentina in 2013.

Only two of the current Bok group have played at the stadium; Eben Etzebeth, who started against the All Blacks in 2012 and Argentina in 2013, and captain Siya Kolisi, who came off the bench against Argentina.

Steyn himself has played twice at the stadium, starting in the first Bok game there back in 2010, which was also former Bok captain John Smit’s 100^th appearance, and against Argentina, and the former kicking ace admitted that the experience was just at a different level.

“I think just to play there in front of 90,000 people, it’s an atmosphere you’re never going to get anywhere else. A fully packed Ellis Park or Loftus is awesome, but to get 90,000 people behind you is just next level,” said Steyn.

“We don’t play a lot of Tests there, so to play against the All Blacks there is just an awesome opportunity.

“I haven’t been there in a long time. But the surface was good when we played there back in 2010 if I remember correctly. Most of our stadiums in South Africa have a good turf, so I think it’s just the atmosphere and the number of people that can fit in there that is very different.”

All Black losses

The Boks have lost both of their matches against the All Blacks at the stadium, heartbreakingly going down 29-22 after two late tries in 2010, while they were comfortably defeated 32-16 in 2012.

Then in 2013 they comfortably beat Argentina 73-13, but that was in front of a smaller crowd of just over 52,000, while over 94,000 attended the game in 2010, and over 80,000 the match in 2012.

It seems around 84,000 tickets have been sold so far for Saturday’s match, and whether the game will sell out is unknown, as the remaining tickets apparently range between R1650 and R4000.

But the Boks will hope to get 87,436 into the stadium – the ticketed capacity for this weekend’s match, which will make for an unbelievable atmosphere as they aim to take a 2-1 lead in the series, ahead of the fourth and final Test in Baltimore, USA.

L’article ALG : La JS. Kabylie ou Rouissat pour une victoire (Mustapha. L) est apparu en premier sur Foot Afrique.