SA’s ailing asset
18 Sep 2012
RYAN VREDE writes the Currie Cup has completely lost its prestige and is now no more than a platform for some young players to stake a claim for a Super Rugby contract.
I’ve watched every round of the tournament and have been completely uninspired. Certainly there are a handful of promising young players emerging, but overall the standard is decidedly mediocre for what used to be South Africa’s showpiece tournament. This of course has been the case for some time, but the quality on offer in 2012 is the lowest it has been in years, even with the current six-team format.
South Africans often boast of their bountiful player resources. This country is undoubtedly blessed in that regard, by quantity doesn’t translate to quality if the Currie Cup is an indication.
The quality will rise in the closing rounds of the league phase when the Springboks return and reach its climax in the playoffs. This is what South Africans will have to become used to – two and a half months of mediocrity followed by an injection of quality for a couple of weeks.
An extended Super Rugby tournament has contributed in part to this. The wizards at the South African Rugby Union who negotiated the Super Rugby deal did so at the expense of the world’s oldest domestic competition. This made financial sense to them, of course, as there was more cash to be made from broadcasting revenue and commercial opportunities that arose from Super Rugby than there were for the Currie Cup. Australia, with no domestic competition to rival South Africa or New Zealand, shafted their partners in the negotiation and emerged as the big winner, with more Australia derbies and a guaranteed team in the play-offs despite having the weakest conference.
More teams will be accommodated in Super Rugby in 2015, which is likely to mean the tournament cutting deeper into August. Where will that leave the Currie Cup? Will we see a one-round, five match league phase followed by semi-finals and a final? It would certainly heighten the stakes and make for more entertaining viewing, albeit not because of the quality of the product. Some club-standard players will continue to give their mates reason to toast with their TV cameos, when those players should have been watching from their couches. But this is what the Currie Cup has become – the playground of the ordinary.
There is no immediate solution on the horizon. There is no way Sanzar will trim Super Rugby to pit only the very best teams against each other and in so doing reducing the time it takes to complete the tournament. In an ideal world I’d have a Super 10 that starts in early February and finishes 11 weeks later, with a one-round, six-team Currie Cup commencing thereafter. If, for example, Western Province host the Sharks in 2012, they will travel to Kings Park in 2013.
This would allow Springboks players to compete in the Currie Cup before the June Tests. The game’s most important assets – the players and supporters – win, with a higher quality product and roughly the same amount of game time.
This is a pipe dream. The tournament that was once the pride of a nation is being reduced to rubble, serving as no more than an opportunity for aspirant young bucks to impress their coaches. So sad.
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614 Comments
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19 Sep 2012, 17:25 pm
@fitz1ella-600: You just another whitey who milked the privilege of his ashen skin for half a dozen decades. A coward, as Rossi calls us. You in no position to make statements about anyone. You kept the Nats in power. You should be the first against the wall. Don’t talk to me about who belongs where. My first vote was in the referendum and my second vote was in ’94. And in both cases I voted the Nats out of power. You, on the other hand, were happy with the status quo under Verword, Vorster, Botha… So fck off with your dishonest, phoney little rants.
19 Sep 2012, 17:29 pm
593: So skeppie when I ask u what Cheeky did. You make up some allegation of fraud. When I ask for the whole story, you say its about the country in General? So u just through lies about Cheeky around? Come. What is the reason that white people hate Cheeky. No deflection and wishy washy storiesx this time.
19 Sep 2012, 17:33 pm
@katman-601: Nope I never kept the Nats in power.. where you and yours did.. Nats were never voted for by anyone remotely near to me .. in fact quite the contrary they fought tooth and nail within the limited confines of what the so called ‘law’ allowed them to do back then.. unlike pseudo pisswilly boers such as you who want to come sound off as suddenly being ‘enlightened’ whereas deep in your consciousness you cannot for a minute reason that any black man is anywhere remotely as intellectually or genetically as ‘equal’ as you … feeble little piece of pseudo arsewipe neo nazi trash.
You and Verwoerd are SAME breed of person.. only difference is the times have slightly changed and you cannot stand on the same self justifying principles as you ACTUALLY embrace within your inherently racist heart.
19 Sep 2012, 17:35 pm
@Atreides-587: Maybe I was one of the few white kids to be educated in a Catholic primary school: a convent, a private school, and a multi multi multi-racial school all in the Apartheid heydays of the 80′s…..My little school received quite a bit of ‘stick’ back in the day. Birthday celebrations and the like were always held on the school premises, because ‘A’ wasn’t allowed in my area…..and I wasn’t allowed in hers….. and ‘B’ wasn’t welcome in my area or ‘A’s area – soooo… the school hall witnessed more celebrations, funerals, weddings and other gatherings, than any town hall in SA.
All of our parents (all races) tried to give us kids as normal a childhood as possible in an abnormal country.
19 Sep 2012, 17:43 pm
Sounds like deliberately vague bullshit to me. If you’re white you benifited, whether you voted for the Nats or the PFP. And in your case this went on for a comfortably long time.
19 Sep 2012, 17:52 pm
Really so what I should have voted ANC or PAC or SACP ? That in your convoluted little pseudo arsewipe mind would have endeared me to being a true anti establishment revolutionary?
Or I should have pretended along the same lines that pseudo little runtcunt boertjie racist creeps the likes of you who voted against his parents party in the famous f’ng arsecreep referendum – which ‘allowed’ the black man just a ‘little’ scope to get SHOT of the dehumanizing shackles that your OWN kith and kin BOUND them to for how many centuries..? you pseudo little two face piece of arsewipe trash.. you don’t fool me one little bit.. your INHERENT racist ideology comes screaming through .. no matter how you try PRETEND you an ‘enlightened’ little pseudo half anglicized half boer.
19 Sep 2012, 18:05 pm
So you did nothing. You kept the snout in the trough of white privilege for half a century before it was yanked away, and now you think you can lay claim to some kind of struggle status because you voted for Slabbert? Phony prick.
19 Sep 2012, 18:06 pm
I got FAR more respect for REAL true honest Afrikaners… not these pisswilly little pseudo arsecreep anglicized half boer frauds who wanna come pretend they so goddamn intellectually principled and enlightened…
I got FAR more respect for REAL salt of the earth honest to goodness TRUE Afrikaners who have REAL principles they honestly hold true to ..
Pisswilly little fanny faced frauds such as these pseudo self deluded so called ‘enlightened’ half of nothing arsecreep pseuds get absolutely Zero respect in my books.
19 Sep 2012, 18:15 pm
There was NO white privilege where I came from runtcunt.. my parents did NOT segregate themselves from others in society the way yours did … they fought the inherent establishment in the same way as other politically active people who took the racists on legitimately at the polling booths and not through revolutionary struggle activism.. There was NO snout in any trough.. as there is STILL no snout in any so called trough.. not now and not then..
AGAIN.. unlike you whose pseudo neo nazi snout has been embedded in racist ideological troughs ever since you were born and till the day you die. Feeble little two faced pseud you don’t fool me with your pseudo intellectualized racial dishonesty. I smell an inherent two face fraud when I see one.. and you are IT…
19 Sep 2012, 18:35 pm
@fitz1ella-600: Skop why all the silly name calling?
19 Sep 2012, 18:37 pm
@rossoneri-602: I never accused him of fraud, I was using an example of “even if he commited fraud”. Yes I have heard allegations of financial mismanagement on his part but am not qualified to say whether these are tue or not. I do not like Cheeky Watson because he tried to buy his son a bok jersey. Is that a good enough reason?
19 Sep 2012, 18:40 pm
I call a spade by its name.. a spade.. what else must I call a spade or a runtcunt .. by, what other name shall I call a pseudo half arsed half boer runtcunt.?. if that is what they are.. that is what I call them.
Out now ..
the pseuds better catch a wake up and realize who they are.
ciao for now
19 Sep 2012, 18:42 pm
@rossoneri-602: If you are trying to get me to admit that I hate the Watsons because they backed anti apartheid then let me short cut you…I do not hate them at all, I dislike Cheeky due to 611 above. And yes, as a white male I will always feel guilt over apartheid and will always battle my own inherent racism. All I can do as a person is get rid of any residual **** I picked up during apartheid and ensure I treat all men and women equally. I do not profess to be perfect but I am always trying to be better…have you managed to let go of your bitterness?
19 Sep 2012, 18:42 pm
@fitz1ella-612: Goodnight skop, have a beer and chill
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