if I wrote a book on failure, and it didn't sell, would it be a success?
@skyalphahd
Joined February 2010
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Fuck right off!!
Carrick wasn’t even that great a player. Jeered by United fans plenty for being a much worse version of Scholes and Keane that didn’t run or pass forward.
And a 2nd tier manager that lowered standards, couldn’t inspire anyone and left us in the relegation zone.
On to the next thing.
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Thabo Mbeki took for granted that he was trying to do an extremely difficult thing. President of the party, but not president of the state. Unheard of. And doing it with little to no explanation was poor management. Wish he'd done a better job of managing that narrative.
I wonder what developmental and economical trajectory our country would have taken had delegates at the 2007 Polokwane chosen differently. It may have all been the same but I often consider that to have been our turning point.
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My liberal sensibilities have nothing but contempt for capital punishment. However, this Tlotliso kid who killed his cousin and aunt makes me think otherwise. This dude took his relatives lives for next to nothing.
Can he be corrected?
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Business tsa MaChina best be listening...
Following public outcry over businesses refusing to accept 10, 20 and 50 lisente coins, the Central Bank of #Lesotho (CBL) says such businesses, regardless of their size, should be reported to the nearest police station.
Banks that refuse to accept the coins should be reported directly to the #CBL.
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Rugby, as a sport, wasnt designed to be as professional as it is now. The global league is great in theory but I dont think is possible practically. The clubs have to exist to feed the internationals. Internationals cant happen all year round. Load management.
Why the Nations Championship Is Failing.
If you watched the Nations Championship this past weekend, as I did, every single minute of every game, you saw everything that is wrong with global rugby right now.
On paper, this tournament is supposed to be the pinnacle of our sport. In reality, it felt like a patchwork compromise, a cash grab as some have said.
Before a ball was even kicked, many of the games star players were sitting on the sidelines, broken by weeks of grueling domestic club rugby.
For nations without the bottomless player depth of a South Africa or a New Zealand, losing two or three world class players doesn’t just hurt, it guts their entire campaign. It's even worse, look at the preparation.
Because clubs hold onto their players until the absolute last second, teams like Italy and Argentina are expected to fly in, shake hands, and play top tier Test rugby after just a few days of training together.
It is a broken system. And if rugby wants to survive and grow, we need to stop putting band aids on a fractured calendar and completely rethink how our sport operates.
Look at How Real Global Sports Work.
Turn on the TV to watch Formula 1 or tennis, and you see the best athletes in the world competing against each other consistently all year long.
You don’t see Jannik Sinner flying back to play a random local club match in between Grand Slams.
You don’t see Max Verstappen hopping into a junior car on a Tuesday night just to fulfill a domestic contract.
In rugby, we cling to a disconnected, hemisphere split calendar that forces our best athletes to serve two masters.
The answer is staring us right in the face, separate elite Test rugby from the club game, and build a true global calendar. Imagine an annual, unified 10 team Nations Championship.
Every top nation plays each other throughout the season on a clear points system, culminating in real, high stakes quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final every single year.
No hemisphere silos. No artificial conferences.
Just the best teams on the planet playing for the ultimate prize, with national coaches finally getting full time access to their squads.
What About the Workload?
Whenever I bring this up, the immediate pushback is physicality. Critics say rugby is too brutal for a year round global circuit.
I don’t buy it. Look at an F1 driver enduring extreme G forces and mental exhaustion across 20 plus race weekends, practices, and qualifying sessions and races.
Look at top tennis pros grinding through five set marathons in brutal heat all year at the Grand Slam Tournaments. Elite athletes are built for heavy workloads, when their schedules are managed properly.
Right now, rugby players aren't breaking down because of Test rugby. They are breaking down because they are playing 30 plus combined club and international matches with zero proper off season.
Make top internationals full time Test athletes, and you actually protect their bodies while elevating the quality of the product on the pitch, which all fans want to see.
Debunking the Club Money Myth.
The other excuse you always hear is money. "If you take the Test stars out of the clubs, domestic rugby will die." Let’s look at the actual reality on the ground.
Most English clubs in the Premiership are balance sheet insolvent today, with the stars on their payrolls. Chasing test level wage bills has driven historic clubs out of business, not saved them.
Meanwhile, look at the URC, stadiums in South Africa are more than half empty when northern teams travel down, because those clubs are forced to rest their top internationals anyway.
Fans are already being shortchanged. Clubs shouldn't be holding onto Test stars just to play them a handful of times a season. Domestic clubs ought to be the breeding ground for the next generation.
Right now, hungry young players are rotting on the bench, blocked from senior minutes every time an A lister parachutes back into the lineup.
Look at New Zealand’s NPC. It does well without All Blacks, the South African domestic scene is booming with the Currie Cup and Schoolboy rugby.
Young players get week in, week out senior rugby, they become stars in their own right, and national selectors can actually see who has what it takes under pressure. Aka Riley Norton, Markus Muller etc.
Time for a Shake Up.
Rugby can be so much more.
We can keep pretending that a disjointed hemisphere calendar and late player releases are good enough, while our best players limp into major tournaments and our clubs bleed cash.
Or we can be bold. Let the clubs develop the stars of tomorrow, let the best players on earth represent their countries full time, and give rugby fans the global championship we actually deserve.
Thats how I feel after watching this weekend of the Nations Championship.
#Rugby #NationsChampionship2026
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Is the eccentricity a strategy in and of itself? Is it distracting?
Adv Khumalo politely dealt with Cat Matlala’s legal representative there by #MadlangaCommission 😭😭
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I need the higher power to show me He/She/They exist by returning Malethole Thabane safely to her parents. If the higher power does that, I will never ever doubt its existence again.
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Okes. You know who she is. Shes showed you on multiple occasions. Why do you want to give her a free pass?
The “Keep Helen Zille out of office” campaign is so strident, so personal, so impassioned, that one begins to wonder if some are not trying to hide or perpetuate the corruption that led to the city’s collapse.
She ran; got 35%. If she can form a govt, let her at it let’s see.
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