The log section comes to an end this weekend
Andy Capostagno
The South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) has no plans to cancel the fixture between the Springboks and the United States Eagles in Houston, Texas, on December 1. Despite Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Washington and New York, Sarfu is pressing ahead with preparations for the trip, which comes at the end of a three-week tour of Europe.
Sarfu spokesman Jonty Goslett said on Wednesda:, “No thought has been given to the tour not going ahead as planned. In fact Butch Watson Smith, the commercial manager of the Springbok team, is stuck in Houston at the moment. He flew to Texas on a fact-finding mission for the December Test at the weekend and he was due to fly from Houston to England on Tuesday, but couldn’t get out due to the cancellation of flights.
“The only way the trip might not go ahead as planned is if the US cancels it from their side. The US government might decide to stop sports teams coming into the country, but the Springboks would travel with the endorsement of the South African government and that should guarantee them a friendly reception.”
Events in the US notwithstanding, the Currie Cup continues unabated. This weekend the log sections will be concluded and the 14 teams involved will then be cut into the Super 8 section and the not so super six.
Seven of the top eight are already known and the eighth team will almost certainly be Griquas. They play the SWD Eagles in Witbank on Saturday. The Eagles occupy bottom place in Section Y, but if they were to beat Griquas they could still qualify for the Super 8.
Due to a much inferior points for-and-against record (courtesy of conceding 100 points against the Pumas) the Eagles would need to win with a bonus point and stop Griquas from scoring one of their own to progress. Even that unlikely scenario would be in vain, however, if the Leopards beat the Pumas in Potchefstroom.
But when all is said and done, the team that qualifies fourth on the log in either section is on a hiding to nothing. For it is at this stage that points gathered against teams who fail to make it to the Super 8 stage fall away.
To that end the Falcons, who are sitting pretty after beating the Sharks in Durban last week, are in the happy position of being able to rest key players for their game against Boland. The Falcons are safe in the knowledge that the wine farmers cannot qualify and that therefore a defeat in Wellington will effectively be wiped from the slate before the start of the Super 8.
The key fixtures of the weekend are in Pretoria and Bloemfontein. At Loftus the Blue Bulls host Western Province. Province are unbeaten and have enviable strength in depth. The Bulls can at last call on the services of Joost van der Westhuizen and appear to be finally coming out of the Currie Cup doldrums.
At Free State Stadium the Cheetahs host the Sharks. Both teams lost last week and as a result the top of Section X is something of a logjam with just three points dividing the four teams. Whichever team wins will have a huge advantage in the Super 8, by dint of carrying through at least four and possibly five points.
In its own way this is as significant a fixture as that between the Cats and the Sharks at the same venue in the Super 12 in March. In that game Butch James missed a difficult penalty in the final minute, allowing the Cats to win 26-25. Many of the same players will be in action this weekend and the score line is likely to be just as close.
The only real difference between the games played in March and September will probably be the size of the crowd. More than 30 000 people watched the Super 12 encounter. The Free State Rugby Union would be delighted if they got half that number for the Currie Cup. A sign of the times.