It is a simple enough statement of fact to say that the Blue Bulls are the best provincial rugby team in South Africa. Whatever happens in this weekend’s final at Loftus, nothing will alter that fact. And to prove that it is a long way from being a flash in the pan, Heyneke Meyer’s team stands on the threshold of a third successive final victory: no team has done that in 15 years.
The Bulls lost only once in log play and then throttled back to finish with a couple of draws. The familiar carping of critics who prefer their small pool to consist of more than one big fish has been heard across the land. The Bulls are boring, one-dimensional, forward-obsessed. They have clambered to the top of the greasy pole with bullying tactics.
Their style will be exposed in the Super 12, when teams such as the Brumbies will recognise how easy it is to take the ball quickly past inside center and thereby expose the lack of pace in that lumbering Bulls pack. All of the foregoing may, or may not, be true, but it’s all a little like criticising a goose for not being a swan. The Bulls do what they have to do.
On Saturday, Meyer is toying with the idea of putting an entire tight five on the bench, which is tantamount to admitting how narrow his game plan will be. It’s narrow because it works: the outriders will spend 50 or 60 minutes pummelling the opposition into submission, then the cavalry will come off the bench to administer the last rites. It is a tactic that has failed to work just once in 2004, and that was a mere three-point defeat to the Lions at Ellis Park.
In which case, why should the opposition bother turning up? Well, because finals are like LP Hartley’s opinion of the past: ‘They do things differently there.†Absolutely everything is stacked against the Free State Cheetahs, the opposition for the Bulls on Saturday.
They have a fine tight five, but nothing like the strength on the bench upon which the Bulls can call. They have a sapient eighth man in Rassie Erasmus and a good spoiler in Hendro Scholtz, but the withdrawal through injury of Juan Smith removes the best ball carrier among their forwards. And as for the traditional strength of the Cheetahs behind the scrum, this particular backline is among the most anonymous ever.
The Cheetahs have something to play for, however, and that goes some way towards levelling the playing field. Both Erasmus and coach Peet Kleynhans will stand aside after the final and, although as a union Free State have become accustomed to starting afresh every year, 2005 looks set to be a particularly difficult one.
It has been suggested that emotion alone was enough to drag the Cheetahs past Western Province in last week’s semifinal, but that hardly gives enough credit to the way they played at Newlands. Or, to put it another more damning way, it does not pay enough heed to how badly Province adapted to conditions that, admittedly, might have been ordered in Bloemfontein.
If all it takes to nullify the threat posed by an all-Springbok back row and back line is a little wind and water, then our rugby is not quite as rudely healthy as we have been led to believe, particularly with a tour of Britain and Ireland on the horizon. Remember the old saw: if God had meant man to live in England, he’d have given him gills.
It took far, far too long for Province to work out that Gaffie du Toit needed to be closer to the action than fullback, although if the defeat achieved nothing other than the abandonment of the idea that Werner Greeff can play flyhalf it may not have been in vain.
Greeff’s opposite number, Willem de Waal, had a good day with the boot and proved to be the ultimate difference between the two sides, but he failed to dominate proceedings in the manner that, say, Andrew Mehrtens would have. If it seems unfair to compare De Waal with the All Black great, then it is merely to emphasise the gulf between the utilitarian skills of the former and those required at the next level.
De Waal’s direct opponent on Saturday will be a more celebrated graduate of Boland Landbou, Derrick Hougaard. Once again, it may seem churlish to bring this up, but if the much-maligned Hougaard had been available to the Cheetahs at Newlands they would have won by a much more impressive margin.
Hougaard is the real deal and, in common with several of his teammates, is so wet behind the ears that he actually doesn’t know what it is like not to be Currie Cup champions. He scored 26 points on his own in the 2002 final at the age of 19 and got 25 last week against the Lions. Such is his ability that hardly anyone noticed the latter fact. He is expected to excel.
So the cards are stacked against the Cheetahs. The Bulls are too strong in every area and even a bout of stage fright would probably not be enough to alter the result. Erasmus, Naka Drotske and Os du Randt will all end their careers without South African rugby’s most cherished trophy, and the faded black-and-white picture of Wouter Hugo hoisting Free State’s only Currie Cup in 1976 will remain in splendid isolation.