No point stewing over Tom Curry allegations controversy

There’ll be a lot of mumbling this weekend. Mumbling at how long the queue is at the shops. Mumbling why the braai is taking so long.

And mumbling through the parts of the national anthem when the Springboks line up against New Zealand.

But it was something slightly louder than a mumble that sparked a sporting storm.

England player Tom Curry claimed he was called a “white c**t” by Bok hooker Bongi Mbonambi in the Rugby World Cup semifinal.

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The fiasco, which some have guessed may have come from Mbonambi speaking Afrikaans, and referring to a side (kant) of the pitch, dragged on until less than 60 hours before the final kick off.

On Thursday, World Rugby found there was “insufficient evidence”.

It was not enough for the English media who declared a witchhunt on the week of Halloween.

While the crusade continues, it holds a lesson for South Africans on how to back your own. Too often we’ve been caught praising the opposition – only for it to come back to bite us.

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The Test at Ellis Park last year was a prime example of us respecting a wounded All Blacks, and paying the price for it.

The All Blacks always play their best rugby when their backs are against the wall, so it is encouraging to see in the past few days many Bok players focused on themselves and the team, rather than the opposition. Besides, we have bigger issues to worry about as a nation, like actual hold-ups.

While the world debated whether Curry should ask Google Translate to help with what was said, more than 500 miners were being held hostage underground.

Reports alleged Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union members welded entry and exit points to the GoldOne mine in Springs, eastern Joburg, shut. The union denied this, saying the action was “voluntary”.

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When the Netflix-quality drama subsided, it was speculated production loss could run to millions of rands. Debating what to call the fiasco cannot mask that it was the economy that was held hostage – like the KZN government’s decision on Wednesday to withdraw its controversial sponsorship of the SA Music Awards.

President Cyril Ramaphosa stepped in because government should not be playing Santa Claus in October.