Talk about your highs and lows! The Cats and the Sharks plumb the depths against the Brumbies and Waratahs, the Stormers lose the first half hour 22-0 against the Highlanders and win the next 50 minutes 46-3, then the Bulls steamroller the Hurricanes at Loftus. Just another giddy weekend in the Super 12. The only thing missing was a close game.
As usual, rash predictions are already being made. Discount the Hurricanes and Highlanders; if they’re not good enough to beat South African teams what chance do they have of reaching the semifinals? Put your money on the Waratahs and Brumbies, teams filled with flair and structure. Wait for the Stormers to implode, they’re not that good.
No one has been quite brave enough to write off the Blues just yet, but there are a few critics just itching for Carlos Spencer to have a bad game. When that happens the Aucklanders will be buried under an avalanche of ‘I told you so’sâ€.
So much for the loose talk, then, where does the truth lie, if that’s not an oxymoron? Truth is that the Waratahs do this every year. A fast start, usually against predominantly South African opposition, is invariably parlayed into the mid-table blues as they fall off the bus in April, at the sharp end of the competition.
The Highlanders, by contrast, have a hard-won reputation for being the real thing. They may not demolish everything in their path, but in eight seasons of Super 12 they’ve been to the semifinals four times and the
final twice. It is true to say that their team has undergone a major overhaul since last year, but their captain, the former All Black hooker Anton Oliver, offered no excuses for the defeat against the Stormers.
In the circumstances it is relevant to ask this question: how should the Stormers have reacted to the win at Newlands? Firstly, captain Corné Krige was quite right to take his team on a lap of honour. Krige has been around long enough to know something special when he sees it.
But in true, humble fashion the talk all week has been of keeping feet on the ground, taking one match at a time, in other words all the usual thoughtless sound bites. Considering the depths to which South African rugby has sunk recently, it would have been nice to see a bit more hubris on display. Better by far to frighten the Hurricanes — the Stormers’ next opponents — than let it be known how much you respect them.
Take another look at the records and open your eyes. The Hurricanes have had some special players down the years — Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen are at the top of the list — but they have reached the semis only twice, losing on both occasions, and every other year have finished either eighth, ninth or tenth. These are not frightening statistics.
Given what the Bulls did to the Hurricanes at Loftus, the Stormers should give them carrots at Newlands. A much-maligned tight five has come to the party twice running now and the Hurricanes’ pack is not in the same class as those of the Bulls and Highlanders. A bit of well-aimed grunt should provide a platform for a rejuvenated set of backs to thrive this weekend.
Breyton Paulse, if it had slipped anyone’s mind, is the real thing, but what is Werner Greeff? Is he the fingers and thumbs liability of last year’s World Cup and last week’s first half, or is he the counter-attacking genius of the second period? That goes double for De Wet Barry. Is he a walking yellow card, or the best line straightener and tackle-ball poacher in the domestic game?
Naturally these questions cannot be answered on the basis of two weekends’ work. We need a whole Super 12 full of the kind of things the Stormers did so well last week before we can say that Jake White has a few useful options for his first Springbok side.
Despite failing to turn up against the Stormers two weeks ago the Bulls are probably still South Africa’s best chance of a semifinal spot this year.
They have familiar forward strengths and two boy wonders — Jacques Cronje and Derick Hougaard. The Springbok coach would do well to ink those names into his side right now, for just like Paulse, they are the real thing, even if the Bulls and Stormers may not be.