When a reporter turns to miserable supporter

Remember, I Got it Bad and that Ain't Good?

No, this is not going to be one of those learned pieces where the writer goes on to say, "this well-loved standard composed by so-and-so with lyrics by so-and-so", because, frankly, I don't know who wrote it, though I have it on CD by both Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.

Okay, so I admit the song is one of my all-time favourites. But I promise no more personal details.

No more of that stuff JD Salinger so famously described as "where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap..."

But let's get back to that song a moment, and if you'll excuse the syntax, not only have I got it bad, I got it real bad.

Just don't know when last I was so miserable as after that one-point Super 12 defeat by the Cats in Bloem last Saturday. It ruined my entire weekend.

I moped, I sulked. I hate to think what my peers - in the sense of elders and betters - like Reg Sweet, AC Parker and John Hildyard would have thought of it all. I once handed in some copy on a Springbok team in which I'd written about "us".

"Who is 'us', young man?" sports editor Louis Duffus asked, icily. "You are supposed to be a reporter not a supporter," he added, pointedly.

It doesn't change things, I know. But perhaps now, since I'm older, I can be forgiven for being an out and out fan. Rabid, if the truth be known. But for all that I shall do my best to remain as unbiased as humanly possible and admit that, while the Sharks could have won with Butch James's last minute penalty, the Cats, had they not been sloppy in finishing, had more than enough opportunities to have won by another 10 points.

The Sharks, though there were a number of outstanding contributions from members of the pack, were not able to dominate the forward exchanges - particularly in the loose.

Now let's take a closer look at some of the Sharks' other deficiencies. Butch James drives me to distraction. Though he has the opportunity and ability this year to go all the way to the Springbok team, he must learn to use his head.

Is there no one who can get it into his head that just launching himself into a blind, rocketlike tackle is the easiest thing in the world for a stationary player to avoid? In case he hasn't noticed, the letter "S" in an inverted triangle is not on his chest.

AJ Venter continues to believe he is an armless battering-ram, while the overall discipline - to the detriment of the team's positive efforts - was little short of appalling.

Perhaps the most consistent of the positive efforts continues to come from Craig Davidson. There aren't many who get through as much constructive work on attack and defence as this little dynamo does. This is the form that gained him Springbok selection.

He has only to maintain it to be a certainty for the South African Tri-Nations squad.

Finally... Paddy O'Brien deserves the refs' Mampara of the Week award for allowing Rassie Erasmus to stay hoisted at lineouts for so long he was in danger of becoming a statue. The law simply doesn't allow it, Paddy, old pal.

Ah well... perhaps Saturday it'll be different. Perhaps with a winning result from the Sharks against the Blues in Auckland, by the time you read this I won't be moping.

Might even be humming that old Dean Martin standard, When You're Smiling.