Boks on the Floor, Jagular exposed Bleeding and we Hoping Still

It is very surprising that with Boks having lost eight of their last nine games, nobody is even suggesting that the coach be sacrificed. Reverse apartheid at work or is it something we ordinary rugby illiterates will never understand. Or even more closer to my field, evolutionary optimism at its best. Hope against hope.

That they going to lose their tenth match against All Blacks is given. There is a silent though reluctant acceptance that we can do no better, but we still hoping for a present surprise. How soon we forget our first world cup where the odds were stacked almost impossibly against us. Some call it Madiba magic; I still insist the players had to transfer that magic to the ball against an opposition that had practically flattened everybody in their path. That world cup win is a distant dream for more realistic people like us today. We have always believed that optimism is statistically flawed and generally the main culprit when we focus on the causes of non performance in sport and life in general.

Things generally don’t turn out as hoped for and somehow humans we don’t learn. It is supposed to be an evolutionary trait that has survived decades of Darwinian assault and mutations.  You could say it saves you from worrying about  what is not going happen, even though it is in the minority so as you focus on the job at hand. That has not helped the performance of the Springboks though. We are rock bottom and it shows on the alcohol consumption of the nation as whole and the prescription of anti depressant nationally. It shows on the number of people wearing springbok jerseys on weekends and Fridays before their games. Are we showing optimism or just plain couldn’t care less?

This should not put a lull on what South Africans expectations have always been of our sportsmen. For our GDP we are more optimistic and expect more than almost any nation outside Australia and New Zealand. Let the coaching stuff not begin to belief that we are going to be more accepting of defeats on the rugby field. There is lots of soccer supporters in the rugby stadium and it will soon show. We will win even if it takes a few blood letting episodes before this. We couldn’t possibly do worse than Columbia from USA world cup when an own goal scorer was summarily executed.

If biochemistry and ">physiology of beauty and health are the elements of every mix, then results are assured