‘It feels like you’re playing against family,†said Ruan Pienaar ahead of Saturday’s Currie Cup semifinal between the Sharks and the Cheetahs in Durban. The coastal franchise has signed a host of stars from the Free State in the past two decades. Perhaps the finest was André Joubert, the Rolls Royce of fullbacks, who moved from Bloemfontein in time to become one of the key players of the Sharks’ first great decade, the 1990s.
Joubert came into the Free State side as a precocious youngster. The fullback incumbent, Gysie Pienaar, Ruan’s father, saw the future and moved himself to flyhalf to accommodate the newcomer. ‘I haven’t seen dad for a while,†admits Ruan. ‘It’s been a busy few months.â€
A few years ago Gysie stepped back from an assistant coaching role at the Cheetahs and Ruan decided to make the move to Durban. He took with him his great friends and schoolmates at Grey College, Bismarck du Plessis and Andries Strauss. A few years later the elder Du Plessis brother, Jannie, also made the move, as did a gifted 19-year-old by the name of Francois Steyn.
Is it any wonder that the Cheetahs are at a low ebb? Two Currie Cup titles and three finals at the beginning of the new millennium turned out to be the end of an era, not the beginning of one. With the pick of the younger generation the province also lost its coach, Rassie Erasmus, who moved to Cape Town to coach the Stormers.
After a dismal Super 14 in 2009 the Cheetahs began the Currie Cup with four successive defeats. An impartial viewer would say that their neighbours, Griquas, the team that began that run of Free State defeats, deserved the final place in the last four.
Griquas needed one more bonus point to clinch fourth spot, but couldn’t get close enough to the Sharks in Kimberley last week. They happened to run into a team that had finally found itself.
‘It was difficult to get the blend right when the Springboks came back into the team,†said coach John Plumtree. ‘But I think they took a step up against Griquas and showed what they are capable of. It helps that Juan Martin Hernández has settled down in the flyhalf role. He was a little nervous when he first arrived, having heard so much about rugby in South Africa, but he and his family are enjoying life in Durban now and I think it shows in his play.â€
Plumtree hopes that Hernández and Pienaar will solve his halfback problems when the Super 14 gets under way in February. The Springbok coach may regard Pienaar as a flyhalf or fullback, but Plumtree was quick to restore him to the number nine jersey when the Tri-Nations ended. He also gave the kicking duties to Pienaar in an attempt to boost his fragile confidence.
Therein lies the Achilles heel of this Sharks team. It is full of talent, but seems to lose the plot at the midway point in important games.
That could never be said of the Bulls in the past five seasons or so. Having scraped into the semifinals in the absence of their Springboks, it is the blue machine the other three sides will fear most. Western Province chose the wrong weekend to have a bad day and now have to be at their most ruthless to have a chance at the trophy. The most likely outcome will be a repeat of last year’s final: Sharks vs Bulls in Durban.
Province’s prospects might be more favourable if they had De Wet Barry in the centre, but their former captain is playing in the first division for Eastern Province. That he is here at all is down to the imminent expansion of the Super 14. After two seasons with Harlequins and with a few years left at 31, Barry has decided to take his chances back at home. He could be the trickle that starts a flood, because there is now reason to believe that the 15th Super Rugby franchise will be awarded to South Africa.
A meeting to make the decision convenes on October 21. Until recently it was assumed that Australia would get a fifth team, but things are not looking good down under. Television audiences are dwindling and so are Test match crowds.
Aussies love a winner and the poor performance of the national team in the past three years has had a detrimental effect on the product lower down.
The fundamental issue is that there are not enough people playing rugby union in Australia to support a fifth team. By contrast, in the premier leagues of France and England there are about 80 South Africans plying their trade, a large number of whom will be closely monitoring the meeting on the 21st.
Political manoeuvring behind the scenes means that the Southern Kings may succeed where the Spears failed. The watchword, apparently, is sustainability, which is political speak for a franchise that will feature rather more Afrikaans than Xhosa and Zulu speakers.