Well, thank goodness that is finally over. 2016 will linger in the memory like a foul smell, and nowhere will it hover more ominously than over our rugby fortunes as a country.
If we needed a parting shot to remind us just how far our rugby stock has fallen, the impish elf that is Johan Goosen stepped up to deliver the goods. Never mind that his 24-year-old Christmas stocking had long been filled with enough euros to live in bliss, Goosen has seen fit to walk away from it all.
As peculiar decisions go - and 2016 had plenty in South African rugby - Goosen may have snuck in and become the 11th hour Grinch who stole the cake. Of course, rumours abound about the actual nature of his "retirement", but his dereliction of duty hardly puts South African rugby ethos in a better light.
The game as a whole in SA is in a bad place. The suits have continuously spoken of change, of the need for urgency and cohesion, as well as the desperate need for a uniformal playing style. All of these things have been discussed for years, but precious little fruit has been borne out of it. Talking, ultimately, is not for everyone. The national cricket side had a sit-down of some significance, and the results since then have shown that talking it out can have its benefits. Shakes Mashaba talked himself out of a gig, so he would probably argue that small talk really is not for everyone.
Perhaps, in the spirit of moving forward, it is time for South African rugby to settle its factional differences in the old-fashioned way, one that is not completely alien to the on-field code itself.
On the outskirts of Lima, in Peru, there is a town that settles its annual disputes in a pretty simple, and most efficient manner. Every Christmas, the town gathers around a mountain of beer, a table of food, and seeks to wipe the slate clean. Every grudge or dispute that has not yet been resolved from the previous 12 months is dealt with, and those who feel the need to can step up and settle their differences with a bout of fisticuffs. Man on man, woman on woman, and then they share a beer after their scrap. Their differences are left there, and they move into the new year in peace. They call the tradition “Takanakuy”, which literally means to beat each other up in the Quechua language. The fighting is not compulsory, but some ill-feelings that have festered for far too long need the release of physical contact.
In SA rugby, there are certainly a few unions who could do with the release over petty issues that harm the greater good, and will continue to do so. Those players still out of pocket in the Eastern Province probably wouldn’t mind the alternate to mediation.
The time for talking and skirting around issues is now at an end. 2015 was assumed to be the nadir for South African rugby, after that meltdown against Japan. It turns out that 2016 took up the challenge, and raised it with significant interest.
The buck - or Bok, if you will - must stop now, because a rugby-loving nation will not survive a year worse than losing eight out of a dozen matches, including one to that giant of the Northern hemisphere, Italy. Here’s to 2017, and the Boks getting their punch back.