Exciting Currie Cup matches cannot disguise the unhappiness of players at their treatment by Sarfu
RUGBY: Jon Swift
THIS season’s Currie Cup has proved, in many instances, to be a memorable one. Matches have been hard-fought and no one side can truly be said to be running away from the opposition. On paper, the season seems headed for an equally memorable finale.
This weekend’s encounters only add emphasis to this. Natal, who lead the log by two points from a resurgent Northern Transvaal, take on lowly Free State at King’s Park in Durban. Free State have yet to win a game this season though they have made every match a tough one.
Natal, who scrabbled and battled their way back to a 36-36 draw against Northerns at Loftus last weekend, are currently embroiled in a player-management dispute with their union. The rights and wrongs of the issue will doubtless be the subject of debate for a while yet as cash contracts gain increasing importance as the one season unfolds towards the next.
This is hardly the best preparation for a side with pretentions to winning the Currie Cup and the lively Free State will seize on the chance to exploit any weakness.
At Ellis Park, Transvaal, mauled by Western Province at Newlands last weekend, take on a Northerns line-up determined to reverse the trend of the past few seasons. This is a Blue Bulls side playing with all the forward fire and backline penetration of the province’s halcyon days and no easy ride for the home side.
Province, without Tiaan Strauss at the helm, still look too good for Eastern Province in the weekend’s third match at Boet Erasmus in Port Elizabeth.
On the face of it, the fans are in for more of the intriguing stuff which has already been dished up on the field this season.But there is simmering discontent which could well sink the outcome of this country’s top provincial competition into a morass of ill-feeling off the field and completely overshadow events on it.
The Natal wrangling is just one, more localised, expression of this discontent. The other outbreak of ill feeling is generic to the game –and the Currie Cup — and could have far more serious and far-reaching consequences. The newly formed South African Rugby Players’ Association has raised the threat of strike action unless the needs of the top provincial players are addressed by the authorities.
The association’s legal man, Jasper Raats, issued a terse statement this week saying, among other things, that the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) is not “taking the players’ demands seriously”.
If this is indeed the case, this is a sad indictment of Sarfu, who Raats says continues to act directly with individual players through chief executive Edward Griffiths rather than use the collective forum established by the players. “Sarfu is taking a paternalistic view of the players’ requests by not utilising the forum which they have chosen, by contacting players directly and by making decisions without prior consultation or players’ input,” said Raats.
While the threat of a full-blown player strike such as that which paralysed baseball in America is perhaps less of a possibility than the association would imply, there are sanctions which could hurt the game deeply. One of these is starting games late. This would have a direct effect on the scheduling of TV — and remember, the megabuck deal Louis Luyt did with Rupert Murdoch is for TV broadcast rights. It would be akin to what the Americans call a Mexican standoff and one which will ultimately do no one any real service.
But the players seem to be adamant that they will — and indeed, must — be listened to. And not one of the members of the six sides who compete this weekend will take the field unaware of one salient fact — they are grown men, playing a grown men’s sport for adult wages. It is time they stopped being treated as errant children.