They may be provincial teams but the Super 10 matches will be vital as a pointer to the strength of the international teams for the World Cup
RUGBY: Jon Swift
THERE is more than just Super 10 points riding on the outcome of the opening games in this matching of the top rugby sides in the southern hemisphere for the three South African provinces involved.
For Transvaal, Free State and Western Province this is the chance to test a number of theories of more than passing interest to national coach Kitch Christie. The most important of these will be to see whether rugby in this country has during recent international outings gained the lateral thinking that is so much part of the modern game worldwide.
It is not stretching a point to note that a rigid adherence to a game plan — no matter how good that game plan may have been — has patently failed.
In the inaugural tournament, Francois Pienaar’s Transvalers came out triumphant in a season where the side just couldn’t go wrong. Last year, the opposition had seen the Transvaal pattern … and the trophy changed hands.
New South Wales — beaten 10-3 in Sydney in the 1993 season — have made no secret of the fact that the Wallaby-studded side under hooker Phil Kearns is reading more into the the game at Ellis Park than a spot in the final.
Rudolph Straeuli leads Transvaal in the absence of Pienaar, who is giving his recently repaired knee a rest before the World Cup campaign which lies ahead. But the Australians still see the outing on the Highveld as the toughest game they have.
And as a direct pointer to the outcome of the World Cup, where the dry South African conditions — and here exclude the possibility of a winter-wet Newlands in the South Africa-Australia match which opens the 16-nation competition in May — will have a big say in success or
Equally, the men from Auckland — like New South Wales, the major reservoir of talent for their national team – – and Otago will be looking for pointers to the World Cup as well as trying to batter their way to victory.
Of the two, Auckland have perhaps the tougher task. Fields in Bloemfontein have all the surface give of a concrete highway. It is well that the New Zealanders taste South African conditions at their harshest now.
It is one of the ironies of the game, founded in the slush of northern winters, that the dry South African climate often mitigates against the power of the big forwards yet brings through the greatest aspect of the game: the ability of the backs to run unhampered with the ball.
And here, the Free Staters have always excelled. One hesitates to put a finger on it, but the prospect of a threequarter being dumped hard in Bloemfontein is enough to add an extra yard of pace and an added jink in the sidestep.
Of all the three teams of uitlanders in action this weekend, Otago will probably feel most at home against Western Province at Newlands in Cape Town.
And they come with the psychological edge of having inflicted a 19-12 defeat on the touring South Africans last June. It is always a bonus to go into a game knowing that the opposition can very definitely be
Christie will be watching the sudden rash of fixtures which drags this country’s rugby out of the rounds of friendlies and the interminable grind of squad training directly into top end competition and hoping that the effort he and his coaching staff have put in will pay
One thing though is sure. If our provincial sides fail to show the power to hold the visiting packs and the flair and fleetness of foot to outthink and outpace their opponents at back, the alarm signals will stream up the yardarm. For, in reality, there is no time left for Christie to go back to the drawing board.