Steve Morris : Rugby
There are a number of factors that have shown themselves as the Currie Cup has emerged from the hangover of Tri-Nations tests and Super 12 disappointments. Not the least of these is the competitive edge that has been added to the less fashionable sides such as Boland, South Western Districts, Border and even the Mpumalanga Pumas.
It is an important part of the thinking of the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) that the rugby strengths of this country become more evenly distributed – it has been since the days the late Doc Craven used his not inconsiderable muscle behind the establishment of representative teams for the unlikely areas of Stellaland, Far North and Lowveld.
Examine the thinking on the field, and it makes eminent sense. Players from areas where the bus comes once a day if you are lucky, get the chance to play representative rugby; taste the essence of what makes a provisional side special on a level where their capabilities are stretched but not over-extended.
There was also always the chance that the lesser unions could arrange a friendly in the days of less gridlocked fixtures with one of the big sides to swell the coffers and ignite the interest of a local populace who did not have the chance to go to Newlands, Loftus Versfeld or Ellis Park as part of a regular Saturday’s entertainment.
Those same players also formed a pool for the bigger unions to feed off – especially now that professionalism makes playing the game a viable financial alternative to helping Oom Jan mind the corner store on the understanding that two afternoons a week are free for training and that Saturday is match day.
There were also a number of added bonuses for the rulers of the game in promoting the spread of the game downwards; a platteland prerogative.
As a power base for the administrative moguls fighting off what commerce calls unfriendly takeovers – and Craven faced down more than a few of these – it also made sense. The smaller unions, bathed in the largesse of their bigger, richer and more powerful cousins, were also given a vote on the way the game was run.
The smaller unions suddenly found that, while individually still country cousins, they had a collective voice and, as a block, carried some clout in the way things operated.
Such has been the basis for the move by Sarfu to regionalise the unions into Super 12 squads, a proposal that has been met with the sound of one hand clapping by a public steeped in the traditions of supporting “their” team and who may now be forceed to realign themselves with a side in the southern hemisphere competition to which they owe no historical or even regional loyalties.
The votes which undoubtedly swung the vote Sarfu’s way – and led to Natal taking successful legal steps to prevent – can only have come from the minnows.
It is ironic and illogical that Sarfu would not have seen the dangers in the course on which they have embarked.
First, the tail began to wag the dog. Second, the game risked the very real threat of having the pillars supporting the top stories of what has increasingly become a shaky edifice being removed to build new partitions in the basement.
In short, destroying the Currie Cup, the very foundation of this country’s traditional rugby strength.
The irony of the situation is simply this: the Currie Cup season has been one that should delight followers of the game.
Western Province, a side which provides the heart, if not the home, to so many supporters, has come good again playing the type of rugby under coach Harry Viljoen that gladdens the heart.
After a less than auspicious round of friendlies at the start of the season, Province have given some focus back to their campaign by running the ball at the opposition and demonstrating that rugby can indeed be as majestic in its execution as it can be cruelly physical in its path towards that ideal.
There can be no clearer indication of intent in the Cape than the 52-7 devastation of Mpumalanga last weekend. The ethic of the all-conquering Auckland sides has been assimilated and is being put to use on South African fields.
Free State too have shown – both in Currie Cup and through an outstanding Super 12 campaign – that the game must be allowed to breathe before it is able to flow. This they have managed despite the perennial problem of having a far smaller squad than most of the other unions at the top of the traditional heap.
And despite the niggle which tended to mar the match against Natal last weekend, they still managed to run this country’s most powerful combination closer than the 23-11 scoreline would suggest.
Natal remain the side to beat, a benchmark for others to aim at. It is intriguing that Ian MacIntosh has been able to keep the momentum going with the calls on his players – and to continue to produce new faces for his sides, seemingly from nowhere, and slot them into a machine that continues rolling inexorably towards the Currie Cup final with such monotonous regularity.
MacIntosh, like Viljoen in Cape Town and Nick Mallet at Boland’s headquarters in Wellington, has produced a plan which has as a base used the strengths of simplification to underpin the more fragile risks of expansiveness.
It is called common sense rugby. And it enables the coach to slot in inexperienced players with little of the difficulties that Northern Transvaal and their Gauteng neighbours have experienced.
The Blue Bulls have had off-the-field acrimony to deal with and Gauteng have been hit by such a devastating raft of injuries to key players that, by the end of the season, they will probably be able to field close to three full sides who have worn the red and white during the campaign.
Northerns are coming back and this is a good thing for the game. The throb of Loftus has ever been the heartbeat of the north.
Gauteng too are a better side than their showings have indicated, and in losing 19- 15 to the Bulls in their last outing, gave some indication that, once Dawie Snyman has settled in as coach and a fully fit quota of front-line preferences allows him a stable focus on team selections, the Lions of Ellis Park will roar once more.
But, if the administrators forswear too much tinkering with the Currie Cup system, one thing is sure; the less fashionable unions are growing in strength – be this by luck or design – and the power base is spreading as professionalism takes a firmer hold.
And why shouldn’t it. It can’t be a bad thing to make a living at provincial rugby for a side like South Western Districts and live in a spot like Knysna while you are doing just that.