Steve Morris : gby
Two very different contests within the realm of rugby have concentrated the attentions of the followers of the game in this country over the past week; ironically one that has drawn the laager closer and one which promises to open the game out in new directions.
Under the several shadows that hang over the administration of the game, both Mluleki George and Keith Parkinson have announced their intention to stand against Louis Luyt for the presidency of the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu).
George, the senior vice-president of Sarfu, has the backing of Border – and doubtless every player and supporter who has ever felt the discriminations the game has historically handed down – while Parkinson has decided to stand as a somewhat reluctant candidate of his Natal constituency.
It is interesting in the extreme that George and Parkinson have chosen to make public their opposition to the incumbent: rugby has traditionally lobbied in secret, made the major decisions in private and merely rubber-stamped the results for general consumption.
Both men who stand in opposition have made it abundantly clear that they are doing so for one reason and one reason only, and that is to ensure that Luyt no longer holds South African rugby’s destiny in thrall.
“I don’t want to be president,” is the way George put it, “but we need new leadership and that is why I was prepared to take the fight to Luyt.”
Parkinson was perhaps less direct as one would expect from a candidate who had been more or less dragooned into the contest by his union. “We had made quite a lot of noises, but we could not wait any longer,” was his thinking. “We simply had to do something positive to effect change.”
These are courageous stances to take. Luyt does not treat those who oppose him with any degree of cordiality and either can expect a summary end to their careers in the administration of the game should they come out on the losing end of the November 4 vote on the issue at Sarfu’s annual meeting in Cape Town.
Of a more immediate nature though are this weekend’s Currie Cup semi-finals which pit the log leaders Western Province against the limping Gauteng Lions at Newlands and the free-flowing talents of Free State against the holders Natal at King’s Park. And while a place in the final and a shot at lifting the famed golden trophy is at stake, of a more global importance perhaps is the announcement coach Nick Mallett will make in Cape Town at thecompletion of the games of the 36-strong Springbok squad to tour Europe in a five-Test voyage of re- discovery.
Natal, who started the season looking again like the sure-fire favourites to retain the trophy stumbled badly against a resurgent Blue Bulls at the final hurdle presented to them at Loftus Versfeld last weekend.
True the Sharks scored a similar three tries to the Bulls in the 33-28 defeat, but that was merely a sidebar to a match where the home side were dominant and in control from the second minute when Nicky van der Walt crossed the Natal line.
The Bulls – the temptation is still there to call them Northerns despite their name change – have battled back into the frame with some storming late season raids and their rise in performance has, in may ways sharply contrasted the fall-off Natal have experienced.
It is perhaps sad that the men from Pretoria have lost out on a semi-final spot this season, but the signs of a rebirth of the power of the north are there and this is a healthy sign for rugby as a whole in this country.
This weekend, Natal face a tough task in facing down the Free State. Under the sage captaincy of veteran Helgard Muller, the Cheetahs have produced some of the most enterprising rugby of the Currie Cup campaign. This is mirrored in the fact that their points tally stands at 651, a full 86 more than Western Province managed to engrave on the records.
And while may of these points have been put there by the huge boot of Jannie de Beer -a kicker it must be said who has suffered some unexplained lapses – it has been running rugby that has been the lynchpin of Free State’s success.
Beating Gary Teichmann’s combination in front of the fiercely partisan crowds at King’s Park is never easy, but it must not be forgotten that Free State travel well enough to have beaten Otago in New Zealand during their stirring Super 12 sojourn abroad, and if anyone can beat the holders the odds would lie with the men from Bloemfontein.
Natal have suffered some crucial injuries – not least of these the tragic fracture of Joos Joubert’s leg in the first minute of the game against the Blue Bulls – but have somehow contrived to be both a winning and enigmatic combination. The Durban lethargy which seems to have taken hold is not something they will want to carry into the confrontation with the Cheetahs and coach Ian McIntosh will doubtless have spent much of the build-up week hammering this point home.
In this respect it is interesting to compare the attitudes of Natal and Western Province, a side coached by Harry Viljoen in the same innovative way that Mac has handled Natal.
Province have, like Free State, produced some fearsome and flowing rugby, gradually building towards the peak that the Currie Cup presents. They were perhaps helped indirectly by not having to play in the Super 12 competition, a factor which is at the root of the woes suffered by their opponents this weekend.
It meant that Province could spend the early part of the season settling in under Viljoen and finding the combinations and style that they have displayed in the latter half of the domestic rugby calendar.
They have also been helped immeasurably by the way Dick Muir has handled the captaincy and the force of character and experience he has brought to the Western Province midfield, and Andrew Aitken’s sage head at eighthman in helping mould Bobby Skinstadt and Corne Krige into the potent loose forward combination that has been at the heart of Province’s drive.
In contrast, Gauteng have had a tepid season, loosing both Kobus Wiese and Hannes Strydom from the engine room of the second row, spending much of the campaign without Hennie le Roux and switching the captaincy from player to player as injuries took their toll.
In many ways, the fact that the Ellis Park combination have done as much as reach the knockout stages is a badge of character that the union can wear with some pride even if, as form would tend to dictate, they fall at the not insubstantial hurdle Province represent on the Newlands home turf.
Both matches represent intriguing contests, but both will surely be overshadowed this Saturday evening by the announcement of Malletts’s squad.
From the make-up of the men who are to play against Italy, twice against France and then round off the end-of-year trip with Tests against England and Scotland, will come the first public exposure of the game the new coach intends to play.
It could very well be that, come the time for the latest crop of Springboks to board the plane for Europe, we will have a new holder of the Currie Cup, a new style of approach to the game of rugby and a new face in charge of the game in this country.