It’s never a good idea to get carried away about a home win in the Super 12. The tournament is into its eighth season and it became clear very early that away wins were what counted, home wins being taken as a given for any side that had pretensions to finishing in the top half of the table.
But if the Cats’ 33-21 win against the Highlanders is not worth celebrating, then nothing is. The Highlanders had won their first three matches, while the Cats had lost their first two, both in their alternative home base of Bloemfontein.
The early promise of an away win by the Bulls having dissipated, a familiar pall had descended over South African rugby, exacerbated by defeats for the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls at the weekend. In the circumstances, it seemed likely that Laurie Mains’s return to Ellis Park would be accompanied by a satisfied smirk.
Instead it was Cats coach Tim Lane who had to fight hard to stifle laughing out loud. And instead it was Bob Skinstad who had to dead-bat a suggestion from the floor that the victory was less significant for the Cats than it was for South African rugby in general.
The Cats backline against the Highlanders had an average age of 22.5. Its youngest member is Jacque Fourie, who turned 20 three weeks ago; the old man is Andre Pretorius, who will not turn 25 until after the Rugby World Cup. Every man jack of them played out of their socks, but none more so than Enrico ”Ricky” Januarie, who turned 21 on February 1.
Great players don’t need molly- coddling. It is quite possible that Bulls coach Rudy Joubert was right to hold back Derek Hougaard; he may not be a great player. It is as clear as the nose on Ken Rutherford’s face, however, that Januarie, injuries permitting, will be going to the World Cup at the end of the season.
Which is not to say that he is the finished article. He has the South African scrumhalf’s disease of taking a few steps before passing the ball. Habits come from role models and Joost van der Westhuizen’s ponderous service has a lot to answer for.
Januarie’s hero, however, is George Gregan, in which case he needs to study the Wallaby captain’s decision-making process. Lacking Van der Westhuizen’s physical presence, Gregan has made a career from deciding where the ball needs to go before he puts his hands on it. In that regard he benefits from the long line of Wallaby scrumhalves — Ken Catchpole, John Hipwell and Nick Farr-Jones — who regarded a step sideways as a step wasted.
Assuming Januarie can cure that problem, however, the sky is the limit, for he has the priceless ability in a scrumhalf of intuitively knowing the difference between good ball and bad ball. For that reason Pretorius had his best game in months; Januarie kicked or ran the bad ball and moved the good.
His opposite number, All Black hard man Byron Kelleher, targeted him on Saturday, and Pretorius never buckled. He was kicked, punched, pushed and slandered, but kept coming back for more, all with a broad smile on his face.
When I asked him what he’d do with the Weber braai that he won as man of the match he said he’d give it to his mum.
The best sides have their best players at 8, 9 and 10 and having praised Pretorius and Januarie, it would be churlish not to mention the role of Cats captain Skinstad. Three weeks ago, after defeat by the Waratahs in Bloemfontein, questions were being asked of Skinstad’s fitness and commitment. No longer.
Against the Highlanders, Skinstad won ball at the tail of the lineout, drove it off the base of the scrum, made sure that the best ball reached the backs, dropped a goal and scored the injury-time try that gave the Cats a bonus point. He also captained the team as though his life depended on it.
If Skinstad had been in this kind of form ahead of the 1999 World Cup, we would never have had to write nasty things about him. If he maintains this form in 2003, there can be no doubt who will captain and play eighth man for the Springboks this season.
This week, of course, the Cats have to do it all over again just to prove that it wasn’t a flash in the pan. They will have to do so against the unpredictable Hurricanes in Bloemfontein, and therein lies the rub. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the stadium in Bloem, but it routinely attracts less than a third of the audience the Cats get in Johannesburg.
In addition, the split of Cheetahs to Lions players in the squad has shifted dramatically toward the latter, meaning that a large proportion of the players are as close to being away from home as makes no difference. And who was the fixture genius that came up with Cats vs Bulls in Bloem, where both sides were away from home?
All that Skinstad, Lane and Co can hope for is that the momentum built up by two wins at Ellis Park will continue, for the sad fact of the matter is that, after a must-win fixture against the Sharks in Johannesburg next week, the Cats will be on the road for the final five weeks of the tournament. Perhaps that’s why it’s worth getting carried away about one home win in March.