How to win friends and influence me

SO there we were sipping coffee in the Burlington Hotel lobby yesterday, waiting for the Springbok press conference to start. Wondering if we had the hotel right.

Recalling the second-last visit we paid to the same establishment, when an inter-county player of our acquaintance wept openly into a large glass of golden liquid and then drank the contents, an oddly literal expression of disappointment.

We were confirmed in our suspicions that the Burlo was the Bok base when Bakkies Botha drifted past reception like an ocean liner that had slipped its moorings, so we swallowed our cuppa – €3 for a TINY cup, come on! – and headed in to meet Peter de Villiers et al.