New Bok emblem is jinxed, say fans

A jinx was placed on South African rugby, say some superstitious fans, the day the Springbok emblem was "turned around" on the national team's jerseys.

These fans say the national team's fortunes are now unlikely to improve because the latest emblem - unveiled this week by the South African Rugby Football Union - once again has the Springbok leaping in the "wrong" direction.

The new emblem has the Springbok leaping to the right, when viewed from the front. When worn by a player, it leaps away from the centre of the jersey.

"It now leaps towards a sweaty armpit and not towards the heart, the traditional place of honour," said a disapproving Mercury reader after seeing the latest emblem.

He was convinced Springbok rugby had gone into slow decline after the emblem was first turned in 1996, even though the national team had had an impressive run of victories under Nick Mallett and Gary Teichmann.

But the idea of a jinx placed on the team by the turning of the emblem was rejected outright by South African rugby's marketing manager, Gary Grant. "Perhaps our fortunes are now going to turn again," he said. "This is an important year, with the World Cup coming up."

Grant said many international rugby emblems were periodically "tweaked" to update them.

"We wanted to make ours more simple. It is also more streamlined and a bit more aggressive.

"And there is nothing wrong with the Springbok in the emblem going from left to right. The New Zealand fern and the Australian Wallaby do as well."

The new emblem is however not "traditional", according to the deputy director of South Africa's Bureau of Heraldry, Marcel van Rossum.

He said an animal in heraldry traditionally leaned to the viewer's right - "orientated towards the dexter. This one is orientated towards the sinister. But there is nothing wrong with the animal being reversed," said Van Rossum.