INJURY TIME

A GOOD BRAAI

THERE’LL always be plenty of ‘what have yous’ and ‘where fors’ before a Test match, especially one like the Boks played against the Lions yesterday. There’s 12 years between series’s, a lot of time in which to build up frustration. So the ‘waterboys’ become a topic, a change in the TV ref blows up, the fact that one team’s ego gets “dented” causes brouhaha. Added to that, this week, was the presence in the Lions team of wing Duhan van der Merwe. Besides the obvious jokes about ‘an Irishman, a Welshman and Van der Merwe, walk into a bar,’ there was naturally, from the Lions side, talk that Van der Merwe would be sledged – in Afrikaans. The Bok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick, in excellent form at the pre-match press conference on Friday, wasn’t having it. “You know we are good people as South Africans,” Stick remarked, “if it wasn’t for the pandemic we surely would have invited Duhan for a braaivleis.” Wors, chops and roosterbrood.

PIPPEN’S HOUSE

The Olympics are in Japan, but in Chicago you can get a very glamorous venue from which to watch them. Scottie Pippen’s house. The six-time NBA champion is opening his Illinois mansion to Olympic fans for just $92 (about R1400) a night on Airbnb. You can have up to five of your friends with you, on August 2, 4 or 6. Stays are timed, so guests can watch basketball competitions from the group stage to the gold and silver medal games in Tokyo.

According to Pippen, guests will have the opportunity to take home memorabilia from some of Team USA’s 2020 Medal Stand Collection, play in his indoor basketball court and view the Olympic Games from his home theatre.

If the home theatre’s too uncomfortable, head to the pool, there’s an outdoor TV, and you can stream the Games, then get to the sauna and if the Olympics ain’t your thing, there’s an arcade room too, for entertainment.

BRADY AND BIDEN 1

Tom Brady visited the White House with his victorious Tampa Bay Buccaneers, talked of the early struggles of their season, before trolling the orange buffoon who used to occupy the Oval Office: “Not a lot of people think that we could have won. In fact, I think, about 40% of the people still don’t think we won.”

BRADY AND BIDEN 2

Brady was in good form at the White House. We’d always thought the orange buffoon was a friend of his, but Brady seemed to revel in throwing barbs his way, including a reference to the nickname the orange buffoon had created for the current US president.

“Personally, it’s nice for me to be back here. We had a game in Chicago where I forgot what down it was. I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing, and they started calling me ‘Sleepy Tom’. Why would they do that to me?”

BRADY AND BIDEN 3

Biden reflected on the age thing too. “You know a lot is made about the fact that we have the oldest coach ever to win a Super Bowl and the oldest quarterback to win the Super Bowl. Well, I’ll tell you right now, you won’t hear any jokes about that from me.

As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing wrong with being the oldest guy to make it to the mountaintop. That’s how I look at it.” A true, old bromance.