Adam Wakefield

The rugby universe, using the words of Alternative Rugby Commentary’s Jed Thian (search it on YouTube … a very funny series of cartoons from a New Zealand perspective on rugby), is set to go to war once more with the best of the north heading south to face the Tri-Nations teams. Scotland also head to […]

The World Cup has arrived and though many journalists have suggested who might win or who could win, damnit, someone has to take that first step. So, the time has come to gaze into the crystal ball and predict who is going to win the first ever World Cup on African soil. For those who […]

The news spread across the country like wildfire: Benni McCarthy has been left out of South Africa’s final 2010 Fifa World Cup squad. My hat goes off to Carlos Alberto Parreira for making what must have been a very difficult decision. McCarthy, for all his petulance, is probably the most skilled football player South Africa […]

“Who at all the pies?” shouted Carlos Alberto Parreira as he milled about the Bafana Bafana cafeteria. Aaron Mokoena, having recently arrived from England, was about to dig into some green Thai curry when he hard his coaches rancour, and replied, “Not me coach. I’ve just come from a place that is pie central.” Parreira […]

That didn’t last long did it? While South African cricket fans have become used to being underwhelmed by our national team, our recent exit from the World Twenty20 was even more whimpering than usual. What we are used to is a barnstorming start, then the inevitable loss in the knock-outs. Maybe Corrie van Zyl and […]

Note: This was written on a Friday, before the weekend’s carnage fully materialised. Click goes the remote as a Lions fan has to absorb yet another loss in the Super 14. There is some spilt beer on the floor, a King Carlos moniker on a dart board with several holes within the crown that this […]

This year has seen the third instalment of the Indian Premier League, the richest cricket competition in the world. Player salaries have been revolutionised for the first time since Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, the international cricket calendar has become more crowded, and the influence of Indian cricket from a commercial point of view is […]

Liverpool have always proven to be a conundrum to me, especially as a Manchester United fan. Last year they should’ve won the title, but didn’t. The reason? They drew too many games against opposition they should have beaten, plus Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard getting injured at unfortunate times. Perhaps also missing that vital experience […]

The definition of confidence is as follows (with thanks to Wikipedia): Generally described as a state of being certain either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. How is confidence mitigated? If we take the definition above and go the other way, […]

Yesterday it was announced that BokSmart, the joint initiative rugby-saftey programme between the South African Rugby Union (Saru) and the Chris Burger Petro Jackson Fund, has been legislated by Saru at the annual general meeting that was held last week. This is important for the following reason: Every year, pre-2009 before the programme was implemented, […]

I heard with satirical dismay last week that Evander Holyfield, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, and Francois Botha, the South African journeyman, had postponed their scheduled fight in Uganda once more with a new date still up in the air. Botha (41) would never have been fit to face Holyfield (47) even 10 years […]

So Heinrich Brussouw is out of rugby till next year. While it is indeed bad news for Cheetahs and the Springboks, it is important to look at the factors that contributed to his injury rather than the superficial circumstances of it. I say this having read an article in Wednesday’s Business Day where the prophet […]