Better Rugby Rules

King HenryII said out loud ..”Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”

Upon hearing this two loyal nights murdered the priest Thomas Becket.

So what’s this got to do with the movie Invictus?

Invictus is a rugby movie about the Boks winning the 1995 rugby world cup. The ABs as we all now in NZ had timely food poisoning the day of the RWC final. Remember Jeff Wilson throwing up shortly after the game started. The only two ABs that didn’t get sick were those that went to MacDonald’s for dinner. Laurie Mains (ABs coach of the time) blamed a waitress named ‘Suzie’, and stated this this was a planned strategy of  an unknown South Africa party, this fact was supported by the ABs given dinnerl the night before the final in a separate dinning room away from the general population, whereas previously dinners had been in the main dining room with the general population.

Is there any merit to the allegation that ABs was slipped some tummy trouble!

Invictus gives me the idea that President Mandela was politically desperate to win the RWC 1995, and much pressure was placed upon Francois Pienaar to get a win. A fact the ABs rugby management could not have calculated.

I do not think that either Mandela or Pienaar gave the order to poison the ABs food/drink the night of the RWC final. However at the time the ABs were running over every team in the world, Jona Lomu was rampant, and the Boks new it would be a miracle if they won. But the Boks had to win to achieve a major step along the path of uniting the black and white population, they were desperate and failure was not an option.

So maybe Mandela said : ..”Will no one rid me of the All Blacks”..

No so much as giving the order, but over heard by enough Special Branch Officers (ex SA SAS) for one of them to go a little further than the law allows, and drop a vile of tummy trouble into the food/drink just to slow the ABs down so that the Boks could have a chance. After all loosing 50-nil in the RWC was not an option for the Boks, and that was in the tea leaves.

After all 3o years prior to the 1995 world cup, similar foke were giving orders to blow up buses!

YES all the above is fiction, but if you are a rugby crazy NZ’der this movie will make you think.

The movie is worth seeing, but it doesn’t cover the NZ version of events as those sort of facts get in the way of this ‘king making’ rugby story for Mandela and South Africa!

Clint Eastwood had is go, maybe Peter Jackson could tell the story in a more darker light, more of a terrorist come freedom fighter come president at all costs sort of way.

I did think Morgan Freeman did a great job of a ‘nice’ Mandela. Matt Damon did ok. Eastwood did a great ‘story tellling’ job as well, however unlike boxing movies that look very realistic the rugby action seams a little fake. Players weren’t puffed or sweating, you will notice this yourself.