Spears dumped out of Currie Cup
27 May 2006
The Southern Spears will not play in the Currie Cup this year, with Griquas earning ‘promotion’ to the Premier Division.
This was the decision made by Saru’s President’s Council in Cape Town on Friday. While no formal announcement was made, Saru has decided not to finance the franchise that was supposed to have played in the Super 14 next year.
By removing the Spears, Saru has also prevented a lengthy legal battle – Griquas threatened to sue them after failing to qualify for the Currie Cup through the Vodacom Cup. The Kimberley-based side argued that they had been weakened by the loss of key players (like Ronnie Cooke and Tiaan Liebenburg) to the Cheetahs Super 14 squad.
The Spears are now facing almost certain extinction, following the suspension last week of CEO Tony McKeever.
24 Comments
27 May 2006, 11:57 am
yay
27 May 2006, 12:04 pm
Nou het ek weer hoop.
Lyk my die nuwe president ken sy storie!
Go Griekwas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
27 May 2006, 12:29 pm
Wat van boland? Hulle het ook spelers verloor vir super 14 reeks na hulle verlede jaar 6de was in die CB bo Griekwas! Nokwe, Benjamin en Henk Eksteen sou groot verskil gemaak het in Vodacom Cup!
SA Rugby is ‘n grap!!!!!!!
27 May 2006, 12:31 pm
Yup, expect everyone to jump on the bandwagon now.
Go Hoskins!
27 May 2006, 13:33 pm
It’s just racist!
27 May 2006, 14:01 pm
Thats gotta hurt
27 May 2006, 14:29 pm
The Spears should have played in the CC. I don’t agree with this. BUT I think it’s not so much SARU deciding not to let them play in the CC but the three unions making-up the Spears not wanting to play along (or individuals therein). Individuals not wanting to be left off the new Spears gravy train – and “who’s the boss” mentalities – killed the Spears before SARU had no choice but to do so. This is like shooting an injured horse that have little chance of recovery and will suffer more by remaining alive. I so wish it was different. I wished for the Spears to become a new force in SA rugby to break the current boringness of the CC.
27 May 2006, 16:04 pm
Good riddance.
Let them start at the bottom.
27 May 2006, 18:46 pm
Jondood
Watch these boys come back.
This is not just going away
27 May 2006, 19:13 pm
predawn
its amazing any common sense decision in SA rugby must be immediately racist. Hopefully you were being sarcastic in which case wonderful otherwise BOLLOCKS
27 May 2006, 19:46 pm
what a waste. should go to the courts.
27 May 2006, 22:34 pm
The spears are like dinarsouses,they deserve 2 b extinct!
27 May 2006, 23:21 pm
reggy : hmmm …. dinarsouses? I guess you meant “dinosaur”, but maybe the word isn’t one that you use too often!
I think the Spears issue can’t just be swept under the carpet. I was never a fan of them playing S14 in 2007, but I think they should have been given a chance to play together in the CC for a season or two and against all the SA S14 in pre-season games and then given an oppurtunity to qualify for S14. N.B. no automatic qualification.
There is a lot of rugby talent that comes out of the the Eastern Cape (well, from Border, EC and SWD), but it ends up elsewhere. If there was a S14 side, it would stay.
28 May 2006, 04:45 am
43% of registered SA rugby players come from the Eastern Cape area, and still they can’t field a competitive CC team, let alone a S14 team!
Boy, those 43% of players must be bloody useless at this sport, hey? Why don’t they just take up soccer instead of wasting everybody’s time trying to play bad rugby?
28 May 2006, 08:53 am
TheTackler: I think you are a clueless twit and should maybe take up soccer yourself!
Of the top of my head I can name a whole list of current players who left the Eastern Cape/SWD/Border region: Os du Randt, Brent Russell, Pedrie Wannenburg, Kabamba Floors, Luke Watson, Ndagane twins, Solly Tybalika, Keegan Daniel.
Then there were guys like Rassie Erasmus, Mark Andrews and Andre Vos.
28 May 2006, 14:48 pm
justanotherfan,
Rassie, Ndungane twins, Pedrie did not come from that area
28 May 2006, 17:41 pm
gaffie
Yes,Thats a stange decision what have griquas done to deserve the promotion over boland now well get another court case what next!
28 May 2006, 22:21 pm
Hmmm just shows how little you know. Rassie is a Despatch boytjie and Pedrie from SWD. The Ndugane twins are from the Border area.
29 May 2006, 09:58 am
The Sharks super 14 franchise started this mess.
Originally EP was part of the franchise and certain of the S14 games would have been played in Port Elizabeth as well as East London.
The Sharks contracted the few EP players that made the squad and moved them to Durban.
They paid the EP union out for their home S14
29 May 2006, 10:00 am
cont from 19.
and moved the games to Durban.
Atmittedly the EP administraters were short sighted enough to take the money.
They should go back to the original system by playing games in the region to help develop rugby over there.
29 May 2006, 10:53 am
Why did Griekwas get in ahead of Boland? Who ended above Griekwas in Vodacom AND also had players out for the Stormers?
29 May 2006, 11:57 am
how many members did the spears sign?
29 May 2006, 13:13 pm
Boland did not sign as many players (as Griquas)that have been used by various other provinces throughout the Super XIV. They also have many players overseas and the reasoning behind why the so-called bigger unions did not have to qualify is exactly that they do not have full strenght teams in the Vodacom Cup.
Griquas further never agreed and accepted the Vodacom Cup Qualifying nonsense and made that clear from the very begining.
29 May 2006, 14:23 pm
B4theGame
The qualifying games played in the Vodacom Cup had nothing to do with the overall standings at the end of the Vodacom Cup. The games that the teams (other than the six automatic qualifiers) played against each other counted. Griquas was placed third in that log, above Boland.
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