KEVIN MCCALLUM: Respect the ref! Why we just love Ben to bits

In early 1967, Aretha Franklin did to Otis Redding what Whitney Houston had done to Dolly Parton. Houston took Parton’s I will always love you and made it her own. Franklin did the same with Redding’s Respect.

I will always love you topped the Billboard charts for Parton, reaching No 1 twice in two different decades. Houston’s version broke records by staying at No 1 for 14 weeks.

Respect had been a big hit for Redding in 1965. Two years later, Franklin tweaked it ever so slightly and yet, according to the Guardian, profoundly created an “… even more audacious cover of an already dynamic Otis Redding song, Respect, which she transformed into a demand for gender and racial equality that has now become a feminist anthem”.

Respect. R. E. S. P. E. C. T. The “R. E. S. P. E. C. T.” bit was apparently the idea of Franklin’s sister Carolyn. It socked it, took me and you, baby, not just a little bit, but a lot more than Redding had, winning a Grammy. 

Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks have been singing that song to referees all this week and, possibly, since they last lost to France in Marseille in November when Sipili Falatea scored a try in the 74th minute, a try, lest we not forget, that had more double movement than Julius Malema’s tongue. It was a leopard crawl of a try.

Wayne Barnes asked the television match official (TMO) to show him some images and give his feedback. As things so often happen in France, something untoward and mysterious happened.

Communications between Barnes and TMO Brian MacNeice went dark, as did the French broadcasters, who simply couldn’t get the replay on to the stadium’s screens. Hey. It happens. And in France it happens at just the right time. Ask Rassie.

“Sometimes, when the referee comes, they go down or, you know, the TV [replay] doesn’t work at that specific time  I think they’re very clever at that … they’re very good at that,” Erasmus said on Tuesday. It was a classic Erasmus interview, full of damning praise and sly digs. France are a magnificent team but, man, they sometimes cheat, which is why SA are working on respecting referees like they have never been respected before.

 “For us the first word is respect,” said Erasmus said. “I think definitely we got it wrong at stages, especially when we had the year off [due to Covid-19] in 2020, and then we went into the Lions series … the level of communication was really tough. I guess on both sides it led to frustration.

“Last year I had a phone call with Nigel [Owens] and just said: ‘Listen, we really want to get this right. We don’t want people not to like us.’ What we learned from that conversation, no matter if we’re right, the respect you show for the referee, you will get back from the referee, even if he makes mistakes.”

Erasmus and the Boks made no mistakes, according to Lloyd Burnard in his book on the 2019 World Cup. They played Jerome Garces like a fiddle.

“The research included analysis on how the referees blew games of rugby, from scrummaging to the dark arts at the breakdown and the offside line. The level of detail in the refereeing reports included personality traits, all with the hope of finding an edge,” wrote Burnard.

“The report compiled on Garces, for example, revealed that he responded well to being complimented on his physical appearance. If the match was fast-paced, the Boks would make a point of praising Garces on his condition and his ability to keep up with the players, hoping to rub him up the right way.”

Ben O’Keefe may have woken up this week feeling well-rubbed with all the compliments coming to him from SA after they had lost to Ireland in a classic of a World Cup match.

“Also nice to be involved in a game so intense and physical without the referee getting too much involved! Well done Ben and your team. Thank you [SA] for all the support was really lekka!! [maar hartseer],” Erasmus tweeted.

Respect, Ben, my man. South Africans have always loved you.