How Manie Libbok Was Forced Out Of South Africa

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Springbok flyhalf Marnie le Roux was forced to leave South Africa.

[00:00:06]That seems like something out of a Hollywood gangster movie. But today, you are going to get a front row seat to why that's exactly what he Stormers coach John Dobson believes. In fact, Dobbo claims that incessant online abuse ultimately drove Marnie away from Cape Town.

[00:00:26]Le Roux joined Japanese side Hanazono Kintetsu Liners last year in rugby league one division two. Marnie has helped his team to the top of the table and they're looking good for promotion to division one as I record this.

[00:00:41]Let's look at what Dobson said exactly.

[00:00:45]I genuinely don't read it. He's referring to social media postings here.

[00:00:50]But when you see it, it's unbelievable.

[00:00:53]People who know nothing about our process or what a player is going through, whether an injury or their family, feel free to assassinate someone's character.

[00:01:03]That is true. We forget many times that these players are just like us, human beings. The only difference is that they have an extraordinary athletic ability that we don't have. But they also have bills to pay, school fees to pay, groceries to buy, and lose parents, friends, and family as life goes on.

[00:01:28]Dobbo had more to say about this online vitriol.

[00:01:33]Social media has changed things dramatically. I don't read it. I read the mainline articles which I have no problem with because these are guys who grew up in journalism and have some fairness and audi alteram partem.

[00:01:47]That means hear the other side if you don't speak Latin. But this world where you can assassinate a person's character like that based on absolutely no information and it's published. It's there in black and white. The world that the youth operate in now is so binary.

[00:02:04]If you're not with me, you're against me. Then you hate me and I hate you.

[00:02:09]Here I fully agree with John. The extremism that we see online is ridiculous. And it's not just rugby or sport, it's across the board.

[00:02:19]>> [snorts] >> I'm going to give you a hypothetical example that while seemingly outrageous is not exactly that far from reality.

[00:02:27]For example, I could post on X, let's say, that I really like Evan Roos, which by the way, I really do.

[00:02:35]And then someone else will come along and reply, "Oh, so you hate Canan Moodie, you racist, fascist, Nazi. Go kill yourself. I hope you burn in hell."

[00:02:48]Guys, I was a bit theatrical that time. But we see stuff like that, don't we? All I did was say that I like Evan Roos.

[00:02:57]By the way, I happen to really like Canan, too.

[00:03:00]In fact, if anything, I think that if he stays injury-free, we're going to talk about this guy in 10 years time as one of the greatest Springboks.

[00:03:08]But that's the point.

[00:03:10]You can like Roos and Moodie.

[00:03:13]It's not an either/or.

[00:03:15]You can support the Springboks while admiring an All Black, Frenchman, Englishman, Irishman, or Argentine at the same time. Okay, maybe not Englishman. I'm just joking. I'm just joking.

[00:03:28]Yes, we enjoy banter among the fans. And there will always be oaks who take it too far. That's the nature of it. I mean, just think for example, pre-social media, even today really, let's say there's five or 10 of us standing around the fire having a lekker braai and let's say eight of us really like Evan Roos and the other two guys don't like him. It doesn't have to be an argument. You don't start swearing at each other and attacking each other's families and characters.

[00:03:57]But that's how it works on social media apparently.

[00:04:01]By the way, there's more from Dobbo here.

[00:04:03]I wouldn't like to be Sacha Feinberg-Zokwezana I wouldn't like to be Warrick Gelant.

[00:04:09]What's he done wrong? Made mistakes on a rugby field? He hasn't gone and invaded a country and strung nuns from a tree.

[00:04:17]But that's the sort of level of abuse you get now.

[00:04:21]Spot on. It's funny that he went there because in the most recent Stormers match, I thought Gelant had a very poor game.

[00:04:28]Some people have been on Sacha's case for a while now and we know what kind of abuse Marnie came in for.

[00:04:35]Let me address it the way it should be.

[00:04:38]A professional athlete, whether he likes it or not, is a public figure.

[00:04:42]What he does is of public interest.

[00:04:46]Now that extends to trivial things like what is his favorite food, what is his favorite movie, who is he dating, and that's fine.

[00:04:55]It also includes his actual sporting stats. How many caps does he have? How many tries has he scored?

[00:05:02]And perhaps more relevant and in-depth stuff like tackle success rate, meters gained, kicking success percentage, and so on.

[00:05:12]I'll speak quickly on each of these three players. Marnie le Roux's actual game play has always been great.

[00:05:18]But he was an unreliable goal kicker for quite a while.

[00:05:22]Sacha's game play, when he is on song, is out of this world. But of late, he has been inconsistent and his goal kicking success has been questionable.

[00:05:32]It's bizarre because until about a year ago, Feinberg-Zokwezana was very accurate off the tee.

[00:05:38]By the way, last year for the Springboks, le Roux hardly missed a kick at goal.

[00:05:44]So clearly both these men are perfectly capable of kicking penalties and conversions. So what's the problem?

[00:05:51]Personally, the common denominator here for me is the Stormers.

[00:05:57]How else do you explain Marnie struggling from the tee, moving to the Japanese second division, and suddenly kicking accurately again?

[00:06:06]What other reason is there for Sacha being accurate and suddenly struggling?

[00:06:12]Who is the Stormers kicking coach?

[00:06:15]Gareth Wright.

[00:06:16]Now if your kicker or kickers are struggling from the tee and/or struggling to find touch, isn't that the first port of call?

[00:06:25]Because we're not talking one bad game, we're talking about a pattern of inconsistency.

[00:06:31]But no one has a go at the coaching staff, only the head coach or director of rugby.

[00:06:37]And of course, the players come in for the worst of it as Dobbo says here.

[00:06:42]These guys are under a lot of pressure every week even if there wasn't social media. They are under pressure to perform physically on the field. There's a reason there are ambulances, doctors, and defibrillators at games. That's just the rugby side. Then you've got the added stress of someone telling you all your kid reading that you are s h i t from some expert sitting in his dressing gown or some expert sitting in a bespoke Springbok rugby jersey on YouTube.

[00:07:12]Here's Dobson specifically about Marnie.

[00:07:16]The guy couldn't handle it. He's in Japan now. Sacha is going to be a generationally great Springbok for South Africa. We are going to look back.

[00:07:25]There's going to be autobiographies, movies, and we're going to think, "What a player. How privileged we were to have our own Dan Carter."

[00:07:33]So I don't understand what you achieve now by saying he is s h i t or got no b m t or whatever.

[00:07:40]I agree with Dobbo. To me, it is so obvious that if Sacha stays injury-free, he will become one of the great Springboks.

[00:07:50]And in terms of Marnie, I would go so far as to say that if the Boks were playing this coming Saturday, I'd actually pick him at 10 ahead of Handre Pollard and ahead of Sacha Feinberg-Zokwezana.

[00:08:01]Because the argument was always, no matter how good le Roux may be as a creative backline player, if he's going to be the team's goal kicker, we need him to be accurate and he wasn't.

[00:08:13]Funny how he leaves the Stormers and suddenly there's no problem with his goal kicking.

[00:08:19]Maybe Feinberg-Zokwezana should also leave Cape Town.

[00:08:23]Or maybe De Villiers should send Wright on a coaching or refresher course or find someone else for the job.

[00:08:32]Now I promised you that I would also talk about Warrick Gelant. I remember seeing this guy, it was about a decade ago. I think could have been 2014, maybe 15, 16, somewhere in that period, seeing him play for the Bulls at about the same time that Jan Serfontein also made his first impressions on me. I can't remember who the Bulls were playing, but it would have been a Super Rugby match.

[00:08:55]I remember looking at these two guys and I thought to myself, "Oh my goodness, these two players have got some serious potential." And I thought at the time, "It's not going to be long before these two boys are Springboks." And as it turns out, I was proven right. The problem, of course, is that Warrick Gelant never really fully delivered on that promise.

[00:09:16]And we're speaking specifically now about Gelant. I think his decision-making is possibly his biggest weakness because every now and again, that world-class player that we all thought he was going to become actually appears out of nowhere.

[00:09:34]The problem, of course, is that the majority of the time, that world-class player is suppressed by, quite frankly, a mediocre player.

[00:09:45]Now in the spirit of this video, you might be saying to me, "Pete, why are you criticizing him?"

[00:09:53]I've only criticized him for his rugby play.

[00:09:57]I haven't said a word about his character.

[00:09:59]I haven't threatened him.

[00:10:01]I haven't wished horrible things upon him.

[00:10:05]The only thing that I do wish is that he would be the player that we all thought he was going to be, or at least the player that I thought he was going to be about a decade ago.

[00:10:15]Instead of the consistent player, or dare I say inconsistent player, that we see these days.

[00:10:23]Now, criticism is one thing, but the problem really is when it becomes personal, as Stormers captain Siya Kolisi points out.

[00:10:31]We understand the emotional investment from the public. If I miss a tackle or throw a forward pass, I'm open to criticism. It becomes a problem when it gets personal. Once you start threatening players, getting into people's character, that is crossing a line. No one goes out there trying to make mistakes. It's not a perfect world when you are out on the field. There are a lot of moving parts. I've knocked the ball. Everybody's knocked the ball. Or maybe the wrong call. The best players in the world have done it, and they're going to do it again.

[00:11:04]Exactly.

[00:11:05]Even the best players in the world have an off day from time to time. And criticism is perfectly fine if it's fair and focused purely on the sport itself.

[00:11:16]Rather say he missed too many tackles.

[00:11:19]He couldn't find his lineout jumpers. He hardly gained any meters. He missed too many penalty kicks. He should have gone down the blind side. He doesn't anticipate, etc. That's fair game.

[00:11:32]But name-calling, or attacking people's character, or threatening them or their families, will never be okay.

[00:11:41]I dropped my guard the other day and got into an online debate about a former national team player who I didn't rate.

[00:11:47]I presented my case as to why I didn't think he lived up to his potential. And the response from the other guy?

[00:11:55]STFU.

[00:11:58]If you didn't know, that stands for shut the F up. Yeah.

[00:12:03]Because that's how you debate.

[00:12:05]It's also perfectly okay to just say, "I know he might not be the best player on the field or in his position, but I really like him."

[00:12:13]It's your favorite player. It's your choice. It's your taste. And there's nothing wrong with that.

[00:12:21]But what do you think?

[00:12:23]Do you agree that this online aggression has gone too far and something has to be done to stop it?

[00:12:28]Or do you think it's all fair game and the players must suck it up and take it?

[00:12:33]Kind of like politicians.

[00:12:35]Let me know in the comment section down below. And while you're down there, why not help me out with a super thanks.

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[00:13:28]If you're not yet ready to support me in that manner, you can also just spear tackle the like button, and you can also subscribe to my channel if you haven't already done so. And since you're still here, I've got two videos to recommend for you. 1995 Rugby World Cup champion Rudolf Straeuli granted me an exclusive interview. You can hear all about his Springbok career in the mid-90s in this video over here. And I was also joined by former Springbok lock Flip van der Merwe, who distinguished himself in the green and gold. Here's my exclusive chat with him. Pick one, enjoy it, and I'll see you next time.