Remember the SMS that did the rounds at the end of last year? It said: ‘Congratulations to the Bulls for winning the Super 14. Congratulations to the Sharks for winning the World Cup.†The chauvinism of that statement no doubt increases depending on your
proximity to the Jukskei River.
As Bill Goldman — who wrote, among others, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which won the 1969 screenplay Academy Award — was fond of pointing out, subtext is everything. The author of the SMS understood that and was attempting to cover up the painful fact that his team had not won a trophy since 1996.
In 2007 the Sharks won the Super 14 log, but they lost the final to the Bulls. John Smit may have hoisted the Webb Ellis Trophy, but he was wearing green and gold at the time, not black and white. And where would the Boks have been without Victor Matfield, Fourie du Preez and Bryan Habana?
This has been a roundabout way of saying that Saturday’s Currie Cup final in Durban appears like Methusalah, with history oozing from every pore. And to continue the biblical reference, it’s not David versus Goliath, it’s Goliath versus Goliath. The Sharks are favourites with the bookies, but no one would be in the least bit surprised if their dream was deferred one more time.
After all, it is a melancholy fact for home supporters to digest that the Sharks have lost four of the five finals they have played at home. The nadir came in 1999, when Transvaal won 32-9 in Durban on the day when Gary Teichmann, André Joubert and coach Ian McIntosh all announced their retirements. The long-planned celebration became a wake.
It was that match that brought the curtain down on the Natal team of the Nineties. Mac’s men had won the Currie Cup four times in the decade, having not won it at all in the 99 years prior to 1990. And 1990 was the year everything changed.
Beaten twice by Northern Transvaal in the log section, Natal were given no chance in the final at Loftus Versfeld.
Yet they prevailed 18-12 thanks to a late try from Tony Watson, some expert goal kicking by Joel Stransky and a mighty display by the forwards, with Guy Kebble, Wahl Bartmann and Vleis Visagie to the fore.
In Albert Heenop’s book, Team of the 90s, McIntosh recalled the aftermath: ‘Rudi Visagie picked me up off the ground to give me a hug. How I survived that, I don’t know.â€
Northerns reasserted themselves in 1991, beating Transvaal 27-15 in Pretoria, but the men in blue didn’t make the final again until 1998. Kitch Christie may have built his World Cup winners of 1995 around his Transvaal team, but week in and week out the best side in the land came from Durban.
The high-water mark came in 1996 when the team now known as the Natal Sharks beat Transvaal 33-15 at Ellis Park. It was a tight game until the genius of André Joubert destroyed the home team’s hopes. The great fullback cut back from the left wing to score his first try in the 65th minute. Five minutes later he chipped the ball over Joe Gillingham’s head, ran around him and regathered to score.
All of which makes it sound mundane and Joubert was many things, but he was never mundane. On this occasion the ball bounced too high and he could get only a fingertip to it, but special players have the ability to make time slow down. The ball waited for Joubert to catch up, nestled in his palm and sat down under the posts with a satisfying thwack.
The Sharks were never as good again. Between 1999 and 2003 they lost four finals in five years. They had lost the winning habit so painstakingly engendered by McIntosh. They were never short of talent, but collectively they lost the plot.
As the Sharks faded the Bulls awoke from a long slumber. Coach Heyneke Meyer brought an integrated structure to the union, with the same pattern being played by each of its teams, from under-19 through to the senior side.
The Bulls won three years in a row from 2002 and would have won a fourth, but for an unfortunate defensive lapse late in the 2005 final against the Cheetahs.
The team of the Noughties met the team of the Nineties in last year’s Super 14 final. Late in the game Albert van den Berg stretched out to score the try for the Sharks that seemed to have wrapped up the match. But with the very last movement Bryan Habana carved an unlikely opening and Derick Hougaard’s conversion won the game for the Bulls. A disgruntled Sharks supporter sent out another SMS: ‘Does anyone know how to get a champagne cork back into the bottle?â€
In the 18 months since that fabulous game there has been a subtle shift in the power base of South African rugby. The Bulls still have a juggernaut pack and they still have Habana and Du Preez in the back line, but the feeling persists that the Sharks have a competitive pack and more options behind them than their opponents.
In the 1990 final McIntosh shocked the pundits by playing a lock forward, Steve Atherton, out of position on the flank.
In the second half a young New Zealander by the name of John Plumtree replaced Atherton. Eighteen years later Plumtree is the coach of the Sharks and should become the first since McIntosh to sip champagne from the golden cup.