The guys at Fox Sports Australia have ruffled some feathers ahead of the Wallabies vs Springboks match this coming weekend, causing a bit of sense of humour failure in parts of South Africa. The video they’ve made, featuring ‘Jannie’, didn’t go down well.
If you haven’t spent much time with South Africans or don’t know the nuances of parts of the culture, the video might fall flat but it is done in a pretty funny way, and of course it’s all just good spirited banter ahead of the big clash in Brisbane this coming Saturday.
The short clip features Rugby HQ’s Sean Maloney and Andrew Swain bumping into ‘Office Jannie’, a typical South African who goes out of his way to braai (barbecue) at every opportunity. He also watches re-runs of Invictus, reliving the famous 1995 Rugby World Cup win.
Two big newspapers in South Africa have responded angrily to the video, saying that it’s stereotyping at it’s worst, and ‘smacks of desperation’.
Not long ago Rugby HQ ran a #JusticeForHorwill campaign, as well as #TakeBackBledisloe. The latter had mixed results. Actually it didn’t work at all, but it was fun to follow anyway.
Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane has been a bit of a fortress for the Wallabies over the years, as the Springboks haven’t beaten them there since way back in 1971 (a year after Matt Damon was born).
“The only thing offensive about that video is the cut of meat Jannie has on the toastie,” said a spokesperson for Sean Maloney. “It’s clearly blade, chuck at best.”
Unfortunately for Jannie, just as Invictus got to the good part, Maloney wiped over it with Kurtley Beale slotting the winning kick when the two sides met in Bloemfontein in 2010.
The Wallabies host the Springboks on Saturday. Kickoff is at 20:05 local time, 10:05 GMT
Sign In