The end-of-year sporting limbo has well and truly set in. The Springboks won’t be disappointing anyone for a good few months, while the Blitzboks are injecting an antidote to all those woes. Cricket is marauding along, with a candyfloss fixture between the Springboks and the Proteas the highlight of the week as we wait for Boxing Day preparations to get into full swing.

Elsewhere, the Short Course Swimming World Championships has seen Chad le Clos win silver in the 200m freestyle and gold in the 200m butterfly while Cameron van der Burgh failed to progress to the finals. 

And back in rugby, Craig Joubert has decided that he’s had quite enough of refereeing at Test rugby level and called it a day and will now pursue a “dream job” of developing elite young match officials.

But let’s get on to more tasty subjects, shall we?

Offside: Boks the biggest ranking losers, Ireland the biggest winners

Ag shame. As if having the worst season in the history of all their seasons wasn’t quite bad enough, World Rugby’s list of movers and shakers on the official rankings hammers home just how much of a nightmare this season has been for the Boks. Currently ranked sixth, the Boks dropped more points than anyone else (3.06) in total while Ireland gained the most with 2.95 points. The rankings matter, because the draw for the Rugby World Cup, which will be held in May 2017, will see the top four ranked teams drawn with a side ranked fifth to eighth and then one from ninth to 12th, while the remaining eight teams are drawn from two further bands. Going by the current rankings, it could very well mean South Africa have to play the All Blacks in the group stages of the tournament.

Onside: Keaton Jennings joins the Saffa, making a ton on debut for England club

South African-born Keaton Jennings, son of Ray, became the fourth South African to score a Test century on debut for England. Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior all achieved this feat when they made their respective debuts. Despite what the internet might try and tell you, though, Jennings was not lost to the country due to transformation. His mother is English and he was offered the opportunity to earn pounds after just six first-class games in South Africa. While hindsight is a wonderful thing and Jennings might have very well had an opportunity for South Africa in the place of, say, Stephen Cook, his choice was simply one that speaks of the so-called “global village” of youngsters who travel and earn their keep all around the world. Nationalism is so 1940s, no? Besides, Under-19 cricket is a proverbial minefield for predicting international success. Quinton de Kock, for example, remains the only player from the 2012 Under-19 World Cup squad to have earned international colours.

Offside: Mamelodi Sundowns continue to travel badly

Mamelodi Sundowns’ journey to the Fifa Club World Cup has not exactly been all that pleasant. Their victory in the African Champions League was one of ups and downs. Among their tribulations was the fact that they could not train much in the lead-up to the final of the competition because the facilities were not made available to them. This week, as they headed to the world cup, they hit another snag. A 22-hour flight delay meant that they arrived in Japan severely jet-lagged and management decided to call off training on Wednesday.

Onside: Legal action against Fifa over treatment of migrant workers

According to a report in The Guardian, legal action against Fifa and its alleged complicity in the disgraceful treatment of migrant workers in Qatar was filed with a Swiss court this week. Fifa was “summoned to appear in the commercial court in Zürich” in a case brought by the Netherlands Trade Union (NTU) Confederation on behalf of Bangladeshi migrant worker, Nadim Sharaful Alam.

“The Swiss court is asked to rule that Fifa acted wrongfully by selecting Qatar for the World Cup 2022 without demanding the assurance that Qatar observes fundamental human and labour rights of migrant construction workers, including the abolition of the Kafala system,” a statement from NTU read. (Kafala is a system used to monitor migrant labourers.)

If the court action is successful, it could open the door for many similar cases of migrant workers who have suffered serious rights abuses.

Onside: SA rugby cottons on to conditioning

Well, it’s only taken the entire professional era, but South African rugby has apparently realised that conditioning of players is an integral part of achieving success. At a sort of mini-indaba held on Wednesday, Springbok coach Allister Coetzee, with Springbok strength and conditioning coach Warren Adams, met with a number of strength and conditioning coaches from the various unions to talk about the “physical preparation standards of players, the continuous monitoring of players and also the management of player training loads”. Seemingly not present, though, were the guys in charge of the Blitzboks’ conditioning. You know, the fittest and best drilled professional sports team in the country? You can’t have it all, we suppose. DM

Photo: Durham Jets’ Keaton Jennings plays a shot during the NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day at Edgbaston, Birmingham. (BackPagePix)