From the Sidelines: Shame on SA officials

THE win by the Springboks over Namibia was historic, but rather illegal.

Why? Because the match was allowed to carry on for at least four more minutes, to let the South Africans pass the 100-mark point and to give a Springbok fullback Percy Montgomery a chance to go past Jannie de Beer’s goal-scoring record. Montgomery scored a South African test record of 35 points as his error-ridden Boks romped to a 105-13 win over Namibia in a World Cup warm-up match at Newlands.Montgomery, who played his last test in South Africa, surpassed the previous record of 34, scored by De Beer against England in the 1999 World Cup quarter-final in Paris.He scored a try, kicked 12 conversions and added two penalties to take his career test tally to 756.Of course that will go down as a genuine effort by Monty, but I think it was done at the expense of a team which could not help itself as they were hoping to keep the score below 100 points.Referee Jonathan Kaplan allowed the match to continue even after the siren had gone and also awarded a line-out to the Boks, which led to the last try – well after the normal playing time.I am not blaming the players, but the officials who were in charge of the match allowed South Africa to take advantage by putting up their records.It was unsportsmanlike and really a shame from officials of such a big rugby-playing nation.We all knew that Namibia did not stand a chance against South Africa as they went into that warm-up match, but at least there should be fairness and the rules of the game should be applied accordingly.In rugby, there is no extra time, the ref stops the clock for any eventualities during the game, but if the clock hits the 80-minute mark, the game should be stopped.This did not happen though.I am furious because a top international referee such as Jonathan Kaplan should have known better and ended the match at the prescribed time.The Namibians defended pretty well in the last minute when the Boks were below the 100 mark, but one could see their commitment dropped a notch when the match continued despite the siren having gone off.In my opinion, it was unfair to the visitors and playing against the whole of South Africa, there should have been some decency from the South African officials to apply the rules.After all, it was just a friendly match, despite it being awarded test status.* The other point that has angered many football-loving Namibians is the unavailability of most English Premier League matches for the remainder of the season.People have even been complaining to The Namibian as if we are the ones who bought the television rights and led to this whole EPL fiasco.Personally, I am as disgruntled as many football lovers and squarely put the blame on the oversight, insensitive and discriminatory attitude shown by MultiChoice.Oversight in the sense that they did not realise the huge amount of followers of EPL in Namibia and the other southern African countries who were classified as the rest of Africa.Insensitive because MultiChoice scored an own goal by failing to inform (clearly and specifically on the rights issue of the EPL) the subscribers well in advance and in the end saying nothing can be done.It is discriminatory to especially Namibia, as the bosses at MultiChoice Namibia know that we don’t have any alternative sports channels, but yet allow South Africa to put in their own bid, guaranteeing them all the matches.It was an absolute blunder from MultiChoice, as they underestimated their football viewership base in Namibia and the other affected countries, possibly because they never did market research.MultiChoice makes billions from its subscribers and apart from the other leagues they have bought, they could have countered the bid and put more money on the table.But at the moment, we are given all kinds of explanations with regard to that.At this stage, MultiChoice has become NoChoice, as someone put it.Now we will look forward to Gateway Television (GTV) to speed up their rollout to the affected countries for this to be a thing of the past and bring necessary competition in the process.Montgomery scored a South African test record of 35 points as his error-ridden Boks romped to a 105-13 win over Namibia in a World Cup warm-up match at Newlands.Montgomery, who played his last test in South Africa, surpassed the previous record of 34, scored by De Beer against England in the 1999 World Cup quarter-final in Paris.He scored a try, kicked 12 conversions and added two penalties to take his career test tally to 756.Of course that will go down as a genuine effort by Monty, but I think it was done at the expense of a team which could not help itself as they were hoping to keep the score below 100 points.Referee Jonathan Kaplan allowed the match to continue even after the siren had gone and also awarded a line-out to the Boks, which led to the last try – well after the normal playing time.I am not blaming the players, but the officials who were in charge of the match allowed South Africa to take advantage by putting up their records.It was unsportsmanlike and really a shame from officials of such a big rugby-playing nation.We all knew that Namibia did not stand a chance against South Africa as they went into that warm-up match, but at least there should be fairness and the rules of the game should be applied accordingly.In rugby, there is no extra time, the ref stops the clock for any eventualities during the game, but if the clock hits the 80-minute mark, the game should be stopped.This did not happen though.I am furious because a top international referee such as Jonathan Kaplan should have known better and ended the match at the prescribed time.The Namibians defended pretty well in the last minute when the Boks were below the 100 mark, but one could see their commitment dropped a notch when the match continued despite the siren having gone off.In my opinion, it was unfair to the visitors and playing against the whole of South Africa, there should have been some decency from the South African officials to apply the rules.After all, it was just a friendly match, despite it being awarded test status. * The other point that has angered many football-loving Namibians is the unavailability of most English Premier League matches for the remainder of the season.People have even been complaining to The Namibian as if we are the ones who bought the television rights and led to this whole EPL fiasco.Personally, I am as disgruntled as many football lovers and squarely put the blame on the oversight, insensitive and discriminatory attitude shown by MultiChoice.Oversight in the sense that they did not realise the huge amount of followers of EPL in Namibia and the other southern African countries who were classified as the rest of Africa.Insensitive because MultiChoice scored an own goal by failing to inform (clearly and specifically on the rights issue of the EPL) the subscribers well in advance and in the end saying nothing can be done.It is discriminatory to especially Namibia, as the bosses at MultiChoice Namibia know that we don’t have any alternative sports channels, but yet allow South Africa to put in their own bid, guaranteeing them all the matches.It was an absolute blunder from MultiChoice, as they underestimated their football viewership base in Namibia and the other affected countries, possibly because they never did market research.MultiChoice makes billions from its subscribers and apart from the other leagues they have bought, they could have countered the bid and put more money on the table.But at the moment, we are given all kinds of explanations with regard to that.At this stage, MultiChoice has become NoChoice, as someone put it.Now we will look forward to Gateway Television (GTV) to speed up their rollout to the affected countries for this to be a thing of the past and bring necessary competition in the process.