Rugby: Poisoning claims sour grapes - SA fans

South Africa celebrate beating the All Blacks in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. Photo / Getty

The re-hashing of the 1995 World Cup final poisoning controversy has been greeted by an avalanche of wit and sarcasm from South African sports fans.

The catalyst is a Herald feature looking back at the 1995 tournament, including recollections by a couple of the All Black party about the supposed poisoning of the team before the final which was won by underdogs South Africa in Johannesburg.

The saga has built a life of its own over the years, the central character being a waitress - either real or imagined - named Suzie who committed the terrible deed.

The website Sport24 carried a stream of reader comments including the taunt: "Ok NZ - so explain 1991, 1999, 2003, 2007 . . ."

Vince de Beer wrote: "Do you guys remember the waitress that served the Springboks in 2011? Her name is Bryce Lawrence."

Chrono man reckoned: "Hell the ABs are such bad losers." Charles Williams stated: "My heart bleeds....get over it. Sour grapes."

Other comments included:

-"Well at least they are blaming the bookmakers and not the Bok Rugby management."
-"(All Blacks are) terrible cheats and chokers in World Cups."
-"...sour grapes lasts long in NZ, the score reflects what happened, this is only mind games by your AB brains trust again.
-"Take a leaf out of our books, Black Caps beat us at cricket and we are over it as they played tremendous cricket and beat us fairly on the day. Oh no wait, we had our own Suzie, she was called the quota (system)."