Gary Lemke looks back at a jam-packed sporting weekend as the Springboks recorded consecutive wins over the All Blacks, while the Hollywoodbets Sharks claimed victory over the Bulls in the Currie Cup.
BOK WIN HIGHLIGHTS POWER SHIFT IN RUGBY
The Rugby Championship is the Springboks’ to lose. And only Argentina, by beating them back to back, can achieve that. South African rugby is at an all-time high and again, a performance that actually warrants a 7 out of 10, at best, was good enough to beat the All Blacks in Cape Town. The week before it was four points, this past weekend it was six points. When you consider that the Boks beat France, England and New Zealand all by one point on successive weekends to win the World Cup, the four-and-six-point margins are comfortable by comparison.
Apart from the strength in depth aspect. You can now see that the breakaway from Super Rugby has hurt the All Blacks and Wallabies, badly. The Springboks are at the top of their game, while their Antipodean opponents have never been at a lower ebb. The shift in power is complete. It’s now Ireland who have emerged as the Boks’ big enemy, however romantic the games with the All Blacks are.
SINNER EXTENDS THE USA DROUGHT FOR ANOTHER YEAR
The wait for a men’s singles home winner at the US Open goes on. In 2025 it will be 22 years since Andy Roddick won the Grand Slam for America. Although Jessica Pegula wasn’t able to add to Coco Gauff’s 2023 success and went down to Aryna Sabalenka, Taylor Fritz’s straight-sets reverse to world No1 Jannick Sinner was a little more worrying for the USA. Sinner is starting to develop an aura and has had to shake off doping allegations, or at the very least, testing positive for a banned substance in March.
Then, for Americans, there’s the fact that Novak Djokovic hasn’t quite called for his Zimmer frame and there’s Carlos Alcaraz emerging as the new king of clay from Spain. In what was something of a rarity, both the men’s and women’s singles titles at this US Open were over in straight sets.
MARQUES MAKES IN BACK TO BACK IN MOTOGP
Speaking of droughts, Marc Marquez might be a household name in motorcycling but it had been three years between wins before he took the checkered flag in Aragon last week. This weekend he made it two in a row when surging to victory in the San Marino MotoGP.
The race was contested in difficult conditions, although a testimony to the skill levels of the riders is that 19 of the 22 finished. Jorge Martin, the overall leader, saw his gamble on ever-changing weather prospects fail and with Marquez winning the points difference at the top of the table between Martin and Francesco Bagnaia is now only seven points, In other words, nothing. Brad Binder finished fourth in San Marino and climbed up to fifth overall.
Emotions always run high when you win in your team's home GP! 🏆 🏠
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 9, 2024
This is how @marcmarquez93 celebrated his second victory with @gresiniracing 🥇#SanMarinoGP 🇸🇲 | #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/84LweEnJku
DEFEAT TO ITALY SENDS FRANCE INTO DESPAIR
The usual Saturday buzz wasn’t the same this past weekend. It was there, sure, but the French are passionate about its sporting heroes, across all codes, on a scale I haven’t seen anywhere before. I asked someone. “Futbal,” he shrugged and walked away. Then it dawned. France had been beaten 3-1 by Italy the night before in their opening Nations League match. France had scored within 13 seconds, the fastest goal ever recorded in the Parc des Princes.
They lost from there and the nation went into mourning. That’s how deep defeat cuts. However, such is the turnaround in Nations League games that they get to play again on Monday night. Opponents are Belgium, who beat Israel 3-1 at the weekend. I’m flying back to South Africa aboard Air France on Tuesday. It’s going to be a flight that’s either terribly morbid or the passengers dancing in the aisles.
Three goals, three scorers, three points in Paris 😎#FRAITA #Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/Iu0Kw2mgyW
— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri_En) September 7, 2024
FIX FEDERATIONS AND YOU FIX TEAM SA
The curtain came down on South Africa’s Paralympic campaign – and signalled the end of the Olympic cycle that will take another four years until we arrive in Los Angeles in 2028. Paris, the 2024 hosts. have been amazing. The locals’ love for sport is unmatched by any country that’s staged a sports show.
Stadiums and arenas for both the Olympics and Paralympics were filled out, be it on a weekday morning or a Saturday night, boccia or track and field athletics. South Africa’s return? Six Olympic medals, and five Paralympic medals. Not great when it comes to medals, but there’s an undeniable link between money (funding), and professionalism among Federations and medals. Fix SA’s Federations and you’re halfway there.
ALSO WORTH A MENTION …
It might be unfair to say that the Blue Bulls horns have fallen off, but they’ve definitely been blunted as they suffered another Currie Cup defeat, this time to the Hollywoodbets Sharks, as they ended the round-robin phase of the competition in second spot behind the Lions. The Bulls have lost their momentum at the wrong time, but the two teams get a chance to do it all again in this week’s semi-finals. The other one sees the Lions host the Cheetahs …
When Bazball goes right England are unstoppable. When it doesn’t it still means a Test match doesn’t go five days and the third Test at The Oval against Sri Lanka won’t see day five either. However, Sri Lanka needed another 125 runs with nine wickets standing and they themselves reached 94-1 in just 15 overs in their chase of 219 … In golf there Matt Wallace won the European Masters for his first DP World Tour win in six years. Casey Jarvis was the leading South African in a tie eighth, while Thriston Lawrence and Brandon Stone shared 27th.
Full-time at Hollywoodbets Kings Park 🙌
— Hollywoodbets (@Hollywoodbets) September 8, 2024
Hollywoodbets Sharks XV 24 - 18 Vodacom Bulls 🦈#HWBTWT #HollywoodbetsxTheSharks #CarlingCurrieCup #SHAvBUL pic.twitter.com/1iJsgj0Det
