Pumas aim high
20 Jun 2006
The Pumas are striving for an upset in their opening Currie Cup game against Western Province in Witbank on Friday.
“We are a smaller union, but we are a good team,” Pumas centre Sam Gerber told keo.co.za. “We don’t have any Springboks, so that means that we were unaffected by the national call-ups.”
WP on the other hand have lost several key players, and the 2006 Currie Cup season will be a true test of the depth and talent available in the Cape. They are almost certain to make the playoffs, and the Pumas have similar ambitions.
“We had a great year in 2005 winning the First Division of the Currie Cup, and we want to make the semi-finals this season,” said Gerber. “Because we don’t have many recognised players, it means that we have to be even better as a team.”
As the nephew of the great Springbok centre Danie Gerber, there is a degree of expectation of the 25-year-old, who wears the same number on his back.
“My uncle was one of a kind and it would be impossible for me to fill his shoes,” he explains. “But he continues to support me and help me with my game.”
Gerber began his first class career with the EP Elephants in 2001 before moving up to the Pumas in 2003. He then spent a year with the Sharks in 2004, but returned to Witbank the following year.
“Obviously it’s not good for a player to move from province to province, but I’m happy at the Pumas. We have a really close-knit side. Playing with the Sharks was a great experience, but I didn’t get much game time and it didn’t share that special environment that we have up here,” he explains.
Far from content to just waste away in a smaller union, Gerber has set his sights on higher honours, the Super 14 being the next logical step. “I need to continue playing well and building a name for myself, as this is how players from the small unions will be considered for the Super 14.”
By Jon Cardinelli
7 Comments
20 Jun 2006, 10:30 am
DRAGONS ok I am off!
20 Jun 2006, 10:33 am
Gerber is not the business. Could not cut it at the Sharks
20 Jun 2006, 10:33 am
Upset? what do they mean upset? It would be an upset if Province won.
20 Jun 2006, 10:34 am
Who cares!!! Where is my Lions tread???!!!! And let Andrew write it.
20 Jun 2006, 10:34 am
What i would give to see some Currie Cup again
20 Jun 2006, 14:14 pm
Bluecap,
3.
LMFGA!!!!!
So true!
20 Jun 2006, 17:11 pm
Falcons should win if they can stand the smell:
Newlands reels under **** force
Melanie Gosling
June 20 2006 at 11:14AM
There are so many dog turds in Newlands Forest that there are days when forest station office staff cannot open their windows for the stench.
“In summer the smell is especially terrible. We pick up as much as we can, but can’t keep ahead,” said Philip Prins, who manages the Table Mountain National Park’s fire programme.
It’s got so bad that the standby firefighters have to go around picking up turds before they can do their training along the road in Newlands Forest.
One volunteer, Pixie Littlewort, who takes school children on educational outings in the forest, says she picked up just over 25kg of dog faeces one Monday morning.
“I weighed it. And that’s just from the work area around the buildings at Newlands forest station. That translates into 619 people who did not bother to pick up their own dog’s droppings.
“We counted 40 to 50 flies feeding on a single fresh dropping in the middle of the tarred road. About 10 metres away these same flies could also enjoy lunch at the standby firefighters’ quarters,” Littlewort said.
“The firefighters use the road to do their press-ups and work-outs, but first they have to clean up the dog turds. I have to clean it up before I take the schoolchildren there because it’s no good trying to get their attention to look at bark or fungus if they’re standing in dog faeces.”
“Not only are the turds a problem, but so is the steady stream of dog’s urine at the forest entrance, which adds to the stink.
“One Saturday I sat there and counted more than 300 dogs urinating on the bollards between 9am and noon. The poor officials can’t open their windows because of the stench. One of the bollards had to be replaced because the acid in the urine had eaten it away,” Littlewort said.
She says dog owners come up with strange excuses when she tackles them for not cleaning up after their dogs, some even claiming that the excrement doesn’t smell.
“We need a separate entrance for dog-walkers so their dogs can offload away from others who use the forest.”
Asked to comment, Table Mountain National Parks spokesperson Paddy Gordon agreed that “there is far too much of it” in the forest.
“We’re reviewing the environmental management programme for dog-walkers so that everyone can comment on it, not only dog-walkers, as was the case in the past.
“Dog-walkers themselves have suggested a ‘poop-loop’ at the entrance, because apparently observations show that most dogs do their business within the first 20 metres of the cars.”
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