It has been 117 years since the Currie Cup was presented for the first time and never has it been more of a political hot potato.
Australia and New Zealand would like South Africa to scrap the competition in favour of the new and apparently interminable Super 15. To its credit, the South African Rugby Union (Saru) has refused to yield to pressure and, hard on the heels of an outstanding Lions tour, the Currie Cup begins afresh this weekend.
There is even a nod to history, for it was following a British Isles tour to these shores in 1892 that the trophy was first handed over. Sir Donald Currie, the owner of the Castle Shipping Line (later the Union-Castle line), gave his cup to WE Maclagan, the captain of the touring team, with instructions that it should be presented to the first team to beat the tourists.
The trophy became — and remains — the focal point of South Africa’s strongest provincial competition. Super Rugby may come and go, but the Currie Cup goes on.
For the first time in 12 years, the Sharks are the defending champions. In 2008 they lost two of their first five games and then went unbeaten for the rest of the season. They kept that winning run going for more than half of this year’s Super 14 — on South African soil at least — before crashing down.
The champions enter the tournament as something of an unknown quantity when they open their account against Western Province on Saturday. Will the indomitable and frequently dazzling Sharks of late 2008 and early 2009 turn up and put Province to the sword, or will the anxious fumblers of the past few months lose to a fast improving Cape side?
It’s a delicious opening weekend, with two local derbies in addition to the game at Newlands.
The Cheetahs play Griquas in Bloemfontein, a contest that is always compelling. If this year’s tourists had carried a trophy as their 1892 counterparts did, the Cheetahs would have won it. They lost to the Lions by just two points in a game that revealed Heinrich Brussow as a Springbok of rare quality and exposed the limited capabilities of the Lions.
At Loftus Versfeld the Bulls host the Gauteng Lions in a contest that should be one-way traffic. The Lions are in desperate straits and there seems little hope for them in the short term other than to fall back on the old maxim of giving the youngsters a go. If they play as they did against the British and Irish Lions last month, they’ll be slaughtered.
The Bulls have reached that heady stage where they should be favourites for every game they play, with or without their Springbok stars. The team has changed completely from the nervous ninnies of early 2008. Back then they were hamstrung by a new coach and the weight of being the defending Super 14 champions.
They finished 10th, but won their last four games at Loftus and then rediscovered themselves in the Currie Cup, contesting a gripping final with the Sharks.
In the interim, of course, they have won the Super 14 again and something will have gone horribly wrong if they fail to add another Currie Cup to their trophy cabinet.