Wednesday, 16th May 2007 at 6:29 am

John Robbie chews up Oregan Hoskins

Lawyers: erudite, well-spoken, capable of shrewd and cognitive argument… until they get entrusted with the presidency of South African rugby.
This weekend’s Super 14 rugby showpiece – which should have been a grand celebration of all things South African – has been blown off the front pages, as only South African sporting triumph can be, by politics leaping feet first into the sporting arena. This week’s chaos? Luke Watson, who has gone from non-inclusion in the Bok squad to political football in the time it takes Hoskins to remove one foot from his mouth, and replace it with the other.

Having over-ruled the selectors, and made a unilateral decision to include Watson in a squad the national coach clearly didn’t want the Stormers skipper in, SARU has attracted the attention of politicians across the country, who’ve all become instant rugby experts, and simultaneously turned Watson (through no fault of his own) into a bizarre post-apartheid symbol of anti-establishment intent on behalf of the blazered halfwits and hot-winded politicians rugby is all too often lumbered with.

The intervention of politicians, unwelcome as it is, is hardly surprising; Hoskins, though, is a man from whom one expected a little more. False dawn, it would seem; still, have a listen to the following clip of Hoskins trying to defend Watson’s inclusion (and the manner in which it was done) to 702’s John Robbie, and make your own mind up.

Oregan Hoskins vs John Robbie here.