Putting the hole back into Hami-hole

The Saint was rather amused by – and then bemused by the reaction – to the comments of Springbok coach Peter de Villiers, and others, on why his team had decided not to stay in Hamilton this week, during the build up to the test match against the All Blacks on Saturday night in that city.
A while ago leading South African rugby journalist Mark Keohane, a former Springboks media manager, dubbed Hamilton as “Hicksville” and made no secret of teams from the republic wanting to avoid spending too much time there. A couple of years ago, former Australian fullback and former Queensland Red’s skipper Chris Latham blamed his team’s loss to the Chiefs on them being bored because that had to stay in Hamilton.
Meanwhile, the hapless De Villers – who to be quite Francis – has a knack of inserting both feet in his mouth on most occasions, would have gained a fair amount of sympathy from people when he acknowledged his world champion team would rather stay on the Gold Coast than spend the week in Hamilton.
Let’s get real here and put aside all the fake indignation over the Yarpies bagging of Hamilton. We have all done it – by calling it the Tron, Hamil-hole, Cowtown. Hamilton’s only real claim to fame is being the sexually-transmitted disease capital of New Zealand. Hicksville Hamilton, billed a place so boring even rugby players can't stand to spend time in it. And the Saint agrees whole heartedly.
So why did the cow pats hit the fan when poor old “Two Feet” Pete admitted there was bugger all to do in Hamilton and the Springbok squad would get bored in Hamilton if they stayed there for a week? So why all the fuss when the South Africans chose to bypass Hamilton and the very high risk of gaining a STV ( and I am not talking about any long distance phone calls back to South Africa), and instead enjoy the sunshine and fun parks of the Gold Coast?
I pretty sure any reasonable person would have chosen to as well. Unfortunately for de Villiers, Hamilton – and in fact the greater Waikato region – is somewhat short on the ground of reasonable folk. Probably something to do with the province’s over representation of dairy farmers and its reputation for in-breeding – and not just cows!. Anyhoo, I digress.
There is no doubt that de Villier’s candid comment, saw much gnashing of teeth and wringing of six-fingered hands in the cowbell capital. But the reality is there the pace is a dump.
In a previous life, the Saint had the misfortune of having – each year – to attend the National Fieldays just out of Hamilton. It was four days of hell and Hamilton was always the foggiest, wettest, coldest shithole he ever had the misfortune to visit. Lucky for the Springboks that tonight’s test is being played in September and not in the middle of June when the Fieldays are.
The Saint has real sympathy for Peter de Villiers and his honest opinion about Hamilton. Honestly, the place is full of bogans and fat dairy farmers' wives and best thing about Hamilton is leaving the place. End of story.
Go the All Blacks!