RUGBY: Jon Swift
TO call Auckland awesome is akin to predicting the onset of nightfall. It is on performance against the reigning Super 12 champions – even without skipper Zinzan Brooke – that other sides in the competition will be measured.
Certainly, Helgard Muller’s Free State will be awaiting Friday’s opening game of a crowded weekend programme of tri-national provincial series matches with some trepidation. They face the prospect of a second home defeat inside a week in their opening Super 12 meetings after going down to Transvaal at the Free State Stadium last Sunday.
But, that said, in the Free State pattern, there remains much that is good about this country’s rugby. They approach the game in the knowledge that their reserves and resources are limited when measured against the other South African sides in the competition, and lay what they have directly on the line.
Against the might of Auckland, doubtless still smarting from the last-minute Henry Tromp try that earned Northern Transvaal a thrilling 40-40 draw at Loftus Versfeld last weekend, only the brave or the foolhardy would predict a win for the home side.
Free State run the ball willingly and scrum hard. But then so do Auckland. The second of flyhalf Carlos Spencer’s tries last weekend demonstrated exactly that. They won the ball from a turnover and then let it travel through the hands across the length of the field for seven points that never looked to be on.
That Northerns showed the grit to come back in that hugely physical second half and level the match in the dying seconds, says much for the seeds of a revival of the province’s fortunes under the guiding hand of Kitch Christie. There are still great gaps that the man who led this country to World Cup success has to cement closed. Not least of these is the facility to think and act faster and to make the first-time tackles that really count.
But, following the player revolution which ousted coach John Williams and his assistant Eugene van As, there are all the signs there that Northerns will soon be one of South Africa’s rugby powerhouses again.
They get the chance to prove it in Pretoria on Saturday against Queensland. The pride of Australia suffered the humiliation of going down in their opening match against the Brumbies of Australian Capital Territories (ACT)last weekend. Queensland had a somewhat indifferent start to last year’s campaign, but got better as the competition wore on. They represent a tough hurdle for Northerns and another gauge of upward progress in Pretoria.
In Durban, Natal take on an injury-hit Otago team in their opening fixture at a time when the team who ended up as losing finalists are reshaping their line-up, with Steve Atherton and John Allen now overseas and James Small a permanent resident in Cape Town. Otago, who upset Natal last year, will be without the services of Josh Kronfeld, To’o Vaega, Stu Foster, Sion Culhane and John Blaikie.
In the other game this weekend take on ACT at Ellis Park. The Brumbies have proved one of the surprise packages of the tournament though meeting Transvaal on home soil should prove too much for them.