The French flair of Thierry Lacroix for Natal and the poise of Joel Stransky for Western Province will be vital in a tense Currie Cup final, but the two pairs of locks will also be key factors
RUGBY: Jon Swift
THERE are some haunting shadows in the importance placed on this weekend’s Currie Cup final resonant of the provincial fervour in the years of isolation.
This has more to do with the resurgence of two sides and the sure knowledge that whether Natal or Western Province emerge eventual winners, there will be a new holder of the golden trophy with such a long and proud tradition following Transvaal’s comparatively dismal season.
Certainly the game in this country has changed from the days when top of the list for a player was a trip to Newlands, Loftus Versveld or Ellis Park. South Africa are World Cup champions and have a fair smattering of internationals — current internationals nogal — playing in the provincial competition.
And while much has been made of the battle sure to rage in the front rows where Western Province strongmen Tommie Laubscher and Toks van der Linde take on any combination of mix and match props Ian McIntosh seizes on during the flux of the match, it is ironic that two of Natal’s key players are French imports.
Flyhalf Thierry Lacroix has added the dynamic zest of the Gauls to an already impressive Natal backline — and indeed in his Test spot at centre — this season.
Lacroix has the flair and pace to change a game in the blink of an eye. He bears watching by both opponents and spectators for his ability to do the unexpected on his feet as one has learnt over the years is very much part of the French game.
More importantly though, Lacroix claims ownership of another hugely important French trait .. the almost uncanny reading of an open space and the ability to create just this for those around him.
Facing him is Joel Stransky. The Western Province and South African flyhalf also possesses the ability to exploit any space around him to the ultimate.
It is his seeming lack of hurry though, the priceless talent of being able to make that vital extra half second for himself, which marks him as without peer at the moment.
Whether Stransky will be fully fit after limping over the penultimate hurdle to a great season for Province in the clash at Bloemfontein last weekend remains to be seen. But without doubt Tiaan Strauss will want Stransky in the side and even three-quarters fit Stransky, like Lacroix, can swing a match in a moment.
Natal’s other Frenchman, the towering and talented Olivier Roumat, provides a part of the other crucial area. Teamed with Mark Andrews, Roumat makes up one of the most potent second rows in the country.
Both Andrews and Roumat are fine forwards who revel in the business of keeping the engine room going as well as in the more obvious areas of the lineouts and loose.
Facing them, though, are the lock duo who have perhaps been the best of the season on a narrow count-out against their Natal counterparts, Louis Blom and FC Smit.
They have both laid a solid base for the Province front row to scrum from and been outstanding in wining ball on their own throw-ins and spoiling when it is the turn of the opposition hooker.
The Blom-Smit combination has gelled remarkably well and been the factor which has had much to do with Province coming back from their early season disappointments to make what promises to be close if not spectacular final.
The way they have helped with the skirmishes — and do not discount Smit, first capped for this country on the flank in 1992 in this area — has given Province’s French dynamo Laurent Cabannes and Tiaan Strauss the confidence to come flying off the fringes with such effect.
One could also argue that this same factor has had something to do with the return to potential of Fritz van Heerden, who has repaid the compliment by adding a dramatic new dimension to the tail of the Province line-out.
Van Heerden has always been a good player. This season he has shown that he is a fine one. It is something which should please all supporters of rugby and could very likely earn him a spot on the tour to Italy and England.
The same argument holds good for Natal in some respects. Their lock pairing has given the side a solid base to work off. But there is one distinct difference. One feels that perhaps still too much of the clearing up around the edges is being left to Gary Teichmann.
Yet, this reliance on the Natal captain has given Wickus van Heerden the extra yard of pace and helped draw attention to the dynamism and ablity of Wayne Fyvie. But, as a cautionary note, it is a potential weakness that rugby minds as astute as those on the shoulders of Stransky and Strauss cannot fail to try to exploit.
Natal have the undoubted advantage of playing the final in the muggy humidity of King’s Park with the fiercely partisan crowd firmly behind them. It is no small advantage.
Neither is the wind which so often bedevils and bemuses kickers at the superb new stadium. But not in Stransky’s case perhaps. His spell in Natal was a fruitful one for him before he lost favour to Henry Honiball.
Honiball, perhaps ironically, himself has had to give up the No 10 jersey to Lacroix, though his inclusion at centre has added no end to his centre partner Jeremy Thompson’s undoubted ability to get the ball working.
Thompson against the wily Canadian international Christian Stewart promises much if the ball is allowed to flow.
And, it must be added, Honiball can claim parity with Province’s Tinus Linee as a tackler who puts his man down and puts him down hard.
At fullback there have been some question marks — many more imagined perhaps than earned — against the name of Pierre Rossouw in the Province No 15 jersey.
None of these doubts can possibly centre on his love of running the ball and his ability to come through the tackle. In this he shares membership of the club Natal’s Andre Joubert claims undisputed chairmanship of. Again, if the ball is allowed to flow, a comparison between the two after the final whistle offers the potential fuel for many a beer-driven debate.
But logically, given the pressures involved, is is up front — with the boots Lacroix and Stransky providing the extra ammunition — that the final is sure to be fought, despite the glittering array of backline talents n display for both sides.
Finals are necessarily contested in the dour knowledge that to the victors go the spoils to savour until the start of the new season and to the losers a particularly shadowy niche in rugby’s record books.