Robin Adams

Vuvuzela - I'm just not that into you

A quick show of hands, if you will. Who, like me, is not a fan of the vuvuzela?

You know? That giant horn which featured over-abundantly in the 2010 football World Cup in my country, South Africa? The one that is making another appearance right now at the Africa Cup of Nations. And I have an interest in this – I’ll be going there in a couple of weeks.

I must admit, I sang the vuvuzela's praises in the lead-up to the first  World Cup on African soil. I believed the vuvuzela would give the biggest football event on the planet a uniquely African flavour.

That was until I attended two World Cup matches featuring the South American giants, Argentina and Brazil respectively, and got it in the ear from all sides.

Vuvuzelas blaring!

I thought the blowers were sounding it in my ears on purpose. They weren't being blown into the air. They were aimed a little lower - at my head.

Why the Springboks won't win the Rugby World Cup

Anyone who tells you South Africa's Springboks WILL win the Rugby World Cup again this year is wrong.

It's a sweeping statement I know. There is not a Bok supporter bigger than me.

I am proudly South African and I'll throw my weight firmly behind the World Champions. But the Boks don't have what it takes to repeat their heroics of France 2007.

Now, before my fellow countrymen jump up and down and accuse me of being unpatriotic, and before the Springbok supporters club of South Africa revoke my ambassadorship, indulge me just for a minute. Let me explain my position.

South Africa have a tattered record in New Zealand. And we don't have to look further than Carisbrook Stadium in Dunedin (The House of Pain - cue dramatic music), where scrumhalf Ricky January helped the Boks to their first win there in something like 813 years.