Springbok coach Jake White has wrecked this year's Tri Nations competition, with no regard for either the paying public or the game.
After sell-out home matches against the All Blacks and the Wallabies, White left 20 of his top players behind for the tour of New Zealand and Australia. He is saving them for the September World Cup.
Why didn't he rest his top side during the home games? The answer is obvious: it would have ruined the matches for the South African fans – and plundered match-day profits.
Before the Sydney Test, ARU boss John O'Neill criticised the White plan, floating the possibility of legal action if attendance was low.
However, 51,000 fans turned out to see Wallaby legends George Gregan and Stephen Larkham play their last Sydney Test – the match should have been a sell-out. Gregan is the most capped Test player in the world, with 133 games; Larkham played his 100th Test in Sydney.
Still, as was predicted, it was a poor game, which Australia won 25-17.
With two games to play, Australia leads the Tri Nations competition with nine points. New Zealand and South Africa have five points each, though the Kiwis have a game in hand. That will be played against the B-grade Boks in Christchurch this Saturday, before the final game between the All Blacks and the Wallabies in Auckland on Saturday week.
The Auckland game will decide both the Tri Nations and the Bledisloe Cup, the trans-Tasman trophy. And what a game that will be – the most important Tri Nations match for several years.
Unfortunately the Sydney match – which should have had a similar tag – was undermined by the White plan.
Consequently, few people expected a real competition. Even the Wallabies took the game lightly and were too daring too early, falling to an early 17-0 deficit. After realising that they still had to play Test rugby, they settled down and dominated the last 60 minutes of the lacklustre match.
The injustice for Sydney fans is that the first two Tri Nations games in Africa were the epitome of Test rugby, with both going to the wire: the Wallabies just lost and the All Blacks just won in front of packed houses.
Then the top side in the world, the All Blacks, went to Melbourne and were just beaten by a resurgent Australia, who came from behind in a thrilling last 20 minutes.
So, with the Boks and the Wallabies finally matching the dominant All Blacks, the scene was set for the greatest Tri Nations series in recent years.
But no. White destroyed that possibility, in the process undermining the Gregan-Larkham farewell and short-changing the Sydney fans. He'll do the same this weekend to the Christchurch fans.
With Sydney ticket prices around $90, it's a wonder that anyone braved the cold to turn up. But, to their credit, the Sydney fans are staunch rugby supporters.
However, a couple I know were going to attend but on hearing of the White plan they thought, "Why not stay at home by the fire, order a takeaway, buy a bottle of wine, watch the match on TV and still have $100 in our pockets?" Why not, indeed.
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