COME
Not everybody who wants to see the Currie Cup final will be able to do so in Bloemfontein and that’s how its going to be at the World Cup too
RUGBY: Jon Swift
FREE State’s insistence on holding the Currie Cup final at Springbok Park in Bloemfontein should the uncertainties of this weekend’s provincial encounters swing the equation this way, is not surprising.
The resurgent province has already booked a spot in the
October 1 showpiece and if they either draw with or beat Northern Transvaal at Loftus tomorrow, are assured of home ground advantage.
This is as it should be. For, while the Currie Cup rules do not always allow the best team of the year to have the final at home under the history of home and away finals which operates, it would be churlish at most to deny the Free Staters this privilege.
What is of real interest though is this. Springbok Park is not a Currie Cup final venue by any stretch of the imagination. With only 17 000 available seats, the home of Hansie Cronje’s provincial cricketers has only been pressed into service because of the upgrading of the Free State Stadium for World Cup duty next year.
It is evidence of our sudden reappearance at top level. It is not only on the field that we have been seen — on occasion admittedly — to have been caught with our pants below knee level. This has been shown to be the case on the field as Free State have come roaring through against the more fancied Transvaal, Western Province and Northern Transvaal combinations. And in the staggering number of injuries which have emerged as the provincial programme has intensified and Kitch Christie has raced to bring some form to the national squad.
We need an urgent rethink. No-one would dispute this. But, as has so often been stated, neither Christie in particular nor the game of rugby in the round, has the time to sit back and do this.
The provincial programme must be rethought. With the Nite Series, the Lion Cup, the Currie Cup and the Super 10 series all to be considered and the cross-section games to run interference, the pressure on the players is huge.
Equally, the administrators of the game in this country are under the whip. Next year’s World Cup represents a very important aspect of this country’s ability to run the game at top level. And there is little doubt that some of the nations who go into making up the IRB have mixed feelings about seeing a South African success both on and off the field.
That we have the men and the grounds to turn the World Cup tournament into a triumph is not at issue. We do. Whether Christie can weld together a unit cohesive enough to mount a real challenge to the likes of New Zealand, France, Australia and England, remains to be seen.
But be assured, Christie will not fail for any lack of thought or effort. He has taken the pattern so successfully used by the countries with consistent winning records and adapted it to the constraints of time and available talent.
There will be casualties and heartbreak among the players along the way. It is inevitable. But it would already seem that the Christie philosophy is benefitting the game at large. The provincial tempo has, without question, picked up. And it might be added that the skills level has improved somewhat as well.
And despite the figures being bandied about over the cost of tickets for the World Cup in our backyard, you can bank on most of the seats being filled come next year at stadiums around the country.
For most of the South African rugby public though, the World Cup will mean more long hours in front of the TV screen. There just cannot be enough tickets — or one would hazard to point out, personal finance — generally available for any other scenario to be real.
That said then, it is perhaps not a bad thing that all the people who wish to see a Bloemfontein final will not be accommodated. For such a game will perhaps give the rugby public a preview of the way things will be next year and increasingly become under the system of corporate suites in the future.