In the same way rugby coaches accuse rugby hacks of favouring perception over reality in their reports, rugby fans have a habit of writing players off based on appearances.
There's a guy at my local pub who my friends have taken to calling my best mate.
One of the unsavoury by-products of being paid to write about rugby is that after a while one starts believing one's own press about being a purist.
If ever a decision showed how misleading the word "deserving" can be in sport, Harry Redknapp being overlooked for the England coaching job should be it.
Before last year's World Cup final, Stephen Donald was only known as a flyhalf who made playing in the position look every bit as hard as we imagine it to be.
Years ago, when he could still comfortably call himself a coach, Rudolf Straeuli found himself confronted with a battle against relegation in the English Premiership.
As a Bulls supporter, one tends to find that withholding praise from the Stormers is something that comes a little too naturally.
Watching the Cheetahs go through their most successful Super rugby tour was a bit like being taken on a trip through the idiosyncrasies of South African rugby.
One of our least attractive traits as South Africans is our willingness to judge people on the negative aspects of who they are.
As a long-suffering Liverpool supporter, I tend to think about Luis Suarez a lot.
In my first year at Dale College, there was a fellow new pupil who took the school rumour mill by storm.
The happiest man at the conclusion of last weekend's round of Super 15 matches wasn't the smug bastard who got all seven of his SuperBru predictions right.
THERE comes a time in a man's life when he has to decide on the manner in which he will achieve his ultimate goal.
A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook that he had decided not to watch any rugby this year to spend more time with his children.
Not long after the Bulls' leisurely 39-16 win over the Cheetahs in their Super 15 friendly at the weekend, Frans Ludeke sought to do a bit of damage control.
There's nothing like a long off-season to breed a fair bit of optimism.
TWO weeks ago, at the beginning of the Sharks' Currie Cup semifinal against the Cheetahs, a friend had one of those "you heard it here first" moments when he caught sight of the Free State side's young flyhalf Johan Goosen.
The first time I watched a rugby match on TV, Northern Transvaal put 50 points past Ian McIntosh's Natal.
A couple of hours after Bryce Lawrence versus the Springboks, I got a call from my bookie (rather, a friend who used to work for a bookmaker).
Victor Matfield, one of the senior players with an influence on how the Springboks were coached, has advised Saru not to employ a foreign coach to replace Peter de Villiers.
SOMETIMES the best way to find out what the man on the street is thinking about rugby is to watch a game at a pub.
With the group stages of the World Cup concluding this weekend, it has been the kind of tournament which has done little to establish a pattern. The so-called favourites have been installed as such, largely on the basis of blow-outs against the minnows. Here are five things we've learned about the World Cup so far:
Two years ago, I wrote that if this current Springbok team wasn't the best ever to wear the green and gold, they were doing a great job of pretending to be.
The Springboks' close-run thing against Wales on Sunday has led to predictable calls for the bench to do its rescue job from the first minute against Fiji.
It might come as a surprise to those with green and gold stars in their eyes, but there are very good reasons why the Rugby World Cup has never been successfully defended.
Late last year, after a season in which New Zealand (narrowly) lost just once in 11 tests, I wrote a column saying they would not win the Rugby World Cup this year.
ARD Matthews might disagree at this very moment, but thank goodness he made his ill-fated appearance at the announcement of the Springboks' World Cup squad.
With the World Cup looming, Supersport have been airing a promo of the tournament which features the Springboks playing against virtual dragons.
The Springboks' Tri-Nations game against Australia on Saturday has to be the most anticipated first home test since the British and Irish Lions' visit in 2009.
It would appear that the prospect of watching "real rugby" between the Wallabies and the All Blacks on Saturday has done little to stop our anger about the Springboks.
As the Springbok coach and captain groped for elusive positives from their defeat against the Wallabies last weekend, one couldn't help but reach the illogical conclusion that they could also be telling us: "We told you so."
The South African sports fan is a beast after my own heart.
YEARS ago, I fell into conversation with a highly respected Currie Cup coach on one of those rare occasions when he seemed to have time after a training session.
WHAT with the claims and counter-claims by the Lions and the Guma group in explaining the real reasons for their break-up, one has no hope in hell of telling who was more justified in calling the whole thing off.
PETER de Villiers's Springbok World Cup squad stands at 49 and counting, but anyone with a passing interest in the Boks probably knows to within five players who the final 30 will be.
