The teams who have had the most Currie Cup success this season have been playing Buurman van Zyl’s way with forward domination to the fore
RUGBY: Jon Swift
IT is perhaps a trite observation, but this has been a long, hard rugby season. No team typifies this more fully than Transvaal.
Champions of virtually all they surveyed at the start of the season — the now defunct Super 10 series was a notable exception — they have ended 1995 as paupers in the eyes of their notoriously fickle fans.
This weeekend they field an almost totally revamped line-up against the rampant Natal combination at Ellis Park in the last game of what has been a season of
The cynics would argue that Natal are a touch lucky to be heading the Currie Cup log. But such a slight must be tempered with the knowledge that while the boot of Luke Smith — again a substitute this Saturday as he has so often been this season — has kept them in the hunt with vital match-winning kicks at the late stages, the Durban side has always played the full 80 minutes.
Two things must be kept in mind here. First is that the game is indeed played whistle to whistle. The second factor is just as important.
Naas Botha put it best on his genius to produce the drop goal or penalty which took the heart out of the opposition on so many occasions. “You have to have the forwards to get you into position to kick,” he said a good number of years ago.
Nothing has really changed. The game is still won in your opponents’ half and lost in your own.
Northern Transvaal, who sealed Transvaal’s also-ran status this year, have gone back to the things that the late Brigadier Buurman van Zyl believed so strongly in, and applied so successfully in the Currie Cup.
In that 18-12 victory over Transvaal at Ellis Park two weekends ago, Northerns played the pattern the Brigadier drew so simply and graphically for the Blue Bulls nearly two decades ago.
There are three main elements to this. Guard the gain line as a start. Northerns never let Transvaal exploit the advantage line and, more often than not, stopped them before it was breached.
Next is to keep the game as tight as possible at forward. With a strong front row of Marius Hurter, Henry Tromp and the rapidly escalating talents of Pierre Ribbens, Northerns have the base. Add to that a second row of Drikus Hattingh and the inspirational Johan Ackermann, and they have the artillery to take on any side.
The front eight is completed by a truly awesome — by any provincial standard worldwide — loose trio of Ruben Kruger, Ralf Schroeder and skipper Adriaan Richter, and the Northerns side have the second part of Van Zyl’s equation in place.
The third part is made more complex by the enviable skills of Joost van der Westhuizen.
His ability to bring the best out of Lance Sherrell has meant that the Springbok flyhalf discard — despite his current poor form with the boot — has the ability to keep those forwards moving towards the opposing line.
When all this is accomplished — and only then — do you let loose the reins and give the backs the chance to run. For at this stage they have the room.
There was nothing complicated about Van Zyl’s game plan. And, as with most simple things, it worked again and again and again.
In contrast, Transvaal have suffered with positional switches and with the loss of Kobus Wiese through suspension and Hannes Strydom through injury to the detriment of a cohesive driving force they proved to be as little as two seasons ago when they swept all before
Western Province are another side who have stuck firmly to the Brigadier’s basics. And, like Northerns, they have the backs to exploit that platform laid by the
Northerns and Province meet this Saturday at Newlands in what is essentially a semi-final to determine who will take on Natal. It is a match with great prospects as a contest of similar strengths and playing patterns.
But, as so many things savoured in the expectation, it could turn into the dour battle that the rewards perhaps dictate.
One thing is certain though, this is a matching of strengths and as such should bring all that has traditionally been good about South African forward play to the fore.
Wherever the late Buurman van Zyl is now, there must be the hint of a smile on his face. It is a promise of rugby as he understood it.