Brendan Venter’s notorious post-match interview squares up against one of the Varsity Cup’s most hilarious moments in the final round of the quest to discover rugby’s funniest interview.
Nick “The Honey Badger” Cummins’ origin story came up short against the “tutu” ramblings of Peter de Villiers after trumping the Jaco Johan Twitter saga and Joe Marler’s “slightly Irish horse”.
But the former Bok coach couldn’t dance his way around Constant Beckerling’s “enormous testicles” speech in the penultimate round.
After stunning Tuks with a 25-19 victory in the 2018 Varsity Cup, Wits captain Beckerling went viral for his post-match interview, attributing the team’s gutsy efforts to “enormous testicles”.
“We were prepared to win. We knew we were here to make history. All week, that’s what we told ourselves. I am so proud of the boys. Absolutely humbled. The guys came out and played with enormous testicles and we absolutely did it. Fantastic effort. I am such a happy Captain.”
During an extensive interview with the Telegraph last year, Venter discussed his tenure as the director of rugby for Saracens from 2009 to 2011.
One specific topic raised was Venter’s hilarious post-match interview with Martin Gillingham of Sky Sports after Saracens suffered a defeat against Racing 92 in a European Cup tie in December 2010.
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Venter’s remarks about the interview followed a period in which he had been fined for expressing dissatisfaction with referee Christophe Berdos after a loss to Irish team Leinster.
“We were driving to Gloucester on the bus and they had the movie ‘Mike Bassett: England Manager’ on,” Venter told the Telegraph. “It’s typical English humour and there was an interview with this really stupid coach. All he did was agree with the interviewer: ‘Yeah, really good, really good. Yeah, really poor, really poor’. I said: ‘That’s me! That’s my next interview. I’m going to show passive resistance’.
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“My mother actually thought I’d been smoking something or that the stress had gotten to me. No not at all, it’s just a game. [Saracens CEO] Edward [Griffiths] was holding his head in the background. It was a bit of fun.”
Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images, Dominic Barnardt/VarsitySports