By Gavin Rich.
The Springbok international season starts with Saturday’s test against Wales in Pretoria and the hosts will take into it the added expectation that comes from the perception that the local game is now in rude health.
Having two South African teams in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship final was followed this past weekend by a highly watchable and entertaining, and yes, also top quality, Carling Currie Cup final in Kimberley. It was the Pumas’ more physical and energetic defensive effort that won it, but in that game we got a reminder that the offload game that is becoming the rage locally is not just the aegis of the Vodacom Bulls and the DHL Stormers.
There’s a new angle to South African rugby that should make it impossible for Jacques Nienaber to argue, like many of his predecessors have with some justification, “that the players don’t play that game for their franchises or provinces so how can you expect them to do it at international level”.
That was a valid argument, it is no longer. No-one will expect Nienaber to rewrite the whole Bok script, for that is not necessary. They are reigning World Cup champions after all and last year, in a season when they were severely disadvantaged by factors related to the Covid lockdown and then the quarantine demands that were in play during their comeback international season after a year in isolation, they didn’t do badly.
They beat the British and Irish Lions and they got a win over the All Blacks, and would have won the Castle Lager Rugby Championship if they hadn’t lost focus, which was perhaps down to the impact of all the isolation and quarantining, in their two games in Australia.
OFFLOAD AND COUNTER-ATTACK GAME WIDESPREAD
The Boks have been World Cup champions before, but the period after their win over England in the 2019 final in Yokohama is arguably the first time they have reigned like champions. And while a year ago, when the Lions were touring, there was great negativity about the standard of local rugby, that has been swept away by events of the past few months.
The Stormers and Bulls reached the URC final playing a brand of rugby that was far from the dour, forward and defence orientated staple that some think of as traditional South African rugby. And the domestic final showed through some of the tries scored there in the Pumas’ excellent upset win that it has spread through other levels of the South African game.
The Junior Springboks too, in their win over England in the Under-20 Six Nations Summer Series being played in Italy, showed more than just a few glimpses of the offload expertise, the X-factor and willingness to counter-attack that is starting to add a vibrant edge to South African rugby at the perfect time as full capacity crowds get allowed back into local stadiums.
DOMESTIC GAME HEALTHY BUT A RESTRUCTURING NECESSARY
The rude health we refer to extends not just to the game that is being coached and played, but also the structural element to South African rugby that is so important. The emotion of the Currie Cup final should not be allowed to deflect from the serious questions that need to be asked about the future of the oldest provincial competition in world rugby.
Having the Bulls, Western Province, the Sharks and Lions continue in the Currie Cup as it is is not sustainable if South African teams are going to take the next step of following up URC success by doing well in the European competition, the Champions Cup.
The Currie Cup has for a long time seen the top provinces playing under-strength in terms of being without their Springboks. In its old time slot, the business end clashed with the Rugby Championship. But it has become even more under-strength now that it clashes with the URC, and next year no doubt the Champions Cup, as it requires teams to play with second or third strength teams, occasionally even under-20 teams.
That does nothing for the standing of the domestic competition, and arguably it even undermines it. What would be far more sensible would be for the four top franchises to be withdrawn from the Currie Cup, and leave the domestic trophy to be played for by the other 10 provinces, with the incentive of the winner being the other South African team (currently the Cheetahs) to play in the European Challenge Cup the following year.
That approach would bring many advantages, not the least of which would be the extra motivation it would give some of the country unions, and of course the team from the much neglected fertile breeding ground in the Eastern Cape.
COMPETITION COULD GALVANISE INTEREST
The interest in the Kimberley final was astounding given that it was contested by what you could refer to as less fashionable teams, and that sent out the message that having a competition with integrity, meaning a level playing field, for the teams not competing in Europe, could just play a key role in galvanising rugby interest in the so-called platteland.
Nick Mallett summed it up perfectly when he said in the Supersport television program Final Whistle on Sunday night when he said the Currie Cup is not a devalued competition, but a local competition.
What that local competition probably needs though is a new trophy to play for, for Bulls coach Gert Smal is right when he says the Currie Cup trophy should be put in a museum. Given its history, and the previous winners engraved on it mostly coming from the four URC franchises, it wouldn’t make sense to continue with it if the Bulls, WP, Sharks and Lions aren’t involved.
What is certain though is that a domestic competition, hopefully including all the other provinces – or at least a combination of those that can afford to be fully professional, which is an important caveat – does have its place. We saw that with both the fanfare that accompanied the Kimberley final and the quality play and coaching that delivered a fitting finale to a South African season that now ends in June rather than October.
So what should happen to the 131 year old Currie Cup trophy? Maybe it would be wrong to put it in a museum, perhaps it should rather be played for on a challenge basis like the old Ranfurly Shield was in New Zealand.