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GARY LEMKE’S WRAP: Proteas disasterclass a worry, iceman Manie Libbok shines for Stormers and more!

Gary Lemke highlights some of the biggest talking points following an action pakcked sporting weekend.
Manie Libbok of the Stormers
Image Copyright - Steve Haag Sports

Gary Lemke highlights some of the biggest talking points following an action pakcked sporting weekend.

Two women looking excitedly at cellphone

ANOTHER GRADE ONE FOR DRAKENSTEIN STUD

A year after Drakenstein Stud won the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas with Charles Dickens, another colt swooped late to take the 2023 instalment in those famous blue and white colours.

Snow Pilot is by the prematurely deceased stallion Lancaster Bomber and is out of the Grade 1-winning mare Snowdance. So, when the colt got past the gallant filly Red Palace in the final 100m of this three-year-old classic, it basically cemented Snow Pilot’s career as a future stallion himself.

Red Palace also added impressive black type to her future breeding prospects. The quartet paid R4 227, which for me was a lot considering it featured four of the top six in the betting and the favourite, Hluhluwe, ran third.

The day at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth was a resounding success and the sponsors deservedly had their place in the winner’s box when Lion Rampart won the second race impressively, heavily supported in from 11/2 to 28/10.

COVINGTON’S LACK OF CLASS

The highlight of UFC296 was the welterweight title fight where Leon Edwards outclassed Colby Covington over five somewhat disappointing rounds.

Edwards used strong leg kicks to bust up his opponent’s right leg, slowing him down, and dominated standing up and even tried to take his opponent, a wrestler, to the canvas.

Afterwards, Covington, a 35-year-old who dropped to 17-4, outrageously felt he had won the fight. He also had a message for the boo-boys in the crowd. “Thank you for all the hate. You’re a bunch of broke b**ches anyway. F*** you.”

He also endorsed former president Donald Trump (who stood in admiration) in his run for re-election in 2024. Covington had reduced Edwards to tears (before the fight) by saying he would see the champion’s father, murdered when Edwards was 13, “ in Hell”, and claimed he was “a sex trafficker and a drug lord”.

HOW DID THAT END GOALLESS?

We saw the first 0-0 draw in the Premier League since 7th October when both Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest failed to find the net. Sunday’s goalless draw between Liverpool and Manchester United was only the fourth of the season, in 168 games.

Yet, that stat doesn’t tell the story of the game. There should have been a goal or two. Liverpool had 34 attempts – only United themselves, against Burnley in 2017 had more without scoring – and United had six.

Liverpool enjoyed possession 69%-31%, made 607 passes to United’s 293 and won the corner count 12-0. As Sir Alex Ferguson famously said, “football, bloody hell.”

LOCKYER PUTS FOOTBALL IN PERSPECTIVE

The legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly supposedly said – although it was subsequently debunked in some circles – that “football is not a matter of life and death, it’s more important than that”. However, it’s only a sport, even a religion to many, but still, it’s only sport.

We were reminded of that again at the weekend when the Luton Town captain Tom Lockyer suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during the game (1-1 at the time) at Bournemouth. He was stabilised and taken to hospital where he is recovering.

He had collapsed with a heart malfunction in May as well. Reports suggest it was Atrial Fibrillation, which is a condition that disturbs the electricity in the heart and affects the rhythm. Usually, it’s not life-threatening and it can be treated, and even cured, through catheter ablation, and even a pacemaker. We wish Lockyer all the best in his recovery.

PROTEAS DEFEAT A WORRYING SIGN

Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium has seen some epic cricketing moments, but Sunday’s Proteas capitulation to India, collapsing to 116 all out and having the visitors chase down the total in 16.4 overs (this was a 50-over game), was not one of them.

This is the ground that brought you the “438” match between the Proteas and Australia. And where AB de Villiers scored a century off West Indies in 2015, and ended on 149 from 44 balls, also in a “Pink Day” match.

The bitter pill for South Africans to swallow is this: The longer the form of cricket the more the divides in class become. Therefore, the T20s see the most upsets and closer contests.

The Proteas were competitive in the recent T20 World Cup, but over 50 overs – and dare we say Tests – the more visible the gap between the top three in the world (India, Australia and England) will be and highlight where South Africa are at, in the men’s game.

THAT ONE-POINT WIN STRIKES AGAIN

The single-point victories that the Springboks delivered against France, England and New Zealand in consecutive weeks on the way to lifting the Webb Ellis Cup continued when Manie Libbok held his nerve to slot a last-gasp conversion and help the Stormers beat La Rochelle 21-20 at The Cape Town Stadium.

It’s a remarkable streak of tight results. However, I’m reminded of the acerbic nature of former football hardman-turned-manager-turned-analyst Roy Keane. I can just hear him saying, if asked about Handre Pollard’s nerveless place kicking and Libbock’s conversion, “well, that’s their job”.

Of course, Keane didn’t say that, but they’re professionals paid a lot of money and it is their job to kick the points. In football, there’s a goalkeeper standing in the way.

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