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, 16:23 pm
@Transformation-550: Transie regardless of his political beliefs he was still a brilliant rugby man.
19 Sep 2012, 16:24 pm
@nama1-547: Which rugby pundit, Nama…? And not your Uncle, Aunty either okay….
19 Sep 2012, 16:28 pm
@Skeppie-545: you are talking nonsense now, they had NO IDEA that no person of colour was allowed to play in Bok jerseys? you are talking rubbish!
people think it was the nasty Nats government that made apartheid flourish, meanwhile it was ordinary people that sneered at post offices, that refused to share amenities, that would boycott shows at the opera house if their kids were performing with black kids etc. it wasn’t some nasty bunch on grey haired man acting like Overlords!
your sanitised view of what SA was needs a bit of mud in it
19 Sep 2012, 16:30 pm
@Skeppie-551: the two cannot be separated it can’t be that malema is a good stick fighting administrator so him being a doos every day should be overlooked!
19 Sep 2012, 16:30 pm
@Transformation-550: Lol… Is it because Craven was white that you reckon he is racist…?
Are all whites racist Transie?
Are all Rhodesians racist Transie?
Maybe you got to realise that not all whites who don’t open their legs, bend over or let you shag them are racist, umfana…
Maybe they just reckon you are buttugly instead…
(Except Rossi of course
)
19 Sep 2012, 16:31 pm
@Transformation-553: No Transie you missed the point. Yes white people knew players of colour were not allowed to play but they were indoctrinated to beleive that this was the way it should be. It is only after white people’s eyes were opened and they learned that black people were not monsters in a township looking to do them harm that they realised how crazy their thinking had been. If Madiba taught us reconcilliation why would you now advocate erasing sport records of the past?
19 Sep 2012, 16:31 pm
@Heavens Game-555: are you dumb?
what he said and did buddy
19 Sep 2012, 16:32 pm
@Skeppie-556: are you speaking for yourself or this a GENERALLY held view?
19 Sep 2012, 16:33 pm
@Heavens Game-541: Fairytales you say? Do you agree with Skeppie on the Men in Black movie trick with the sunglasses the Apartheid government pulled on all its preferred citizens?
Cheeky Watson
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Daniel “Cheeky” Watson (born 1955) was one of the first white South African rugby union players to participate in a mixed race rugby game, during the period when mixed-race activities were forbidden by apartheid legislation.
The Watsons were subsequently threatened, ostracised, and shot at. Their home was burned down in 1986,[7]. Friends stopped visiting, either because they were being threatened by authorities, or because they disagreed with the Watsons’ political stance.[1]
19 Sep 2012, 16:33 pm
@Transformation-554: You don’t have to throw in the anti Malema bit Transie deep down I know you are a man of reason. I just wish you maybe realised that there are more anti racist white people than you think in this country.
19 Sep 2012, 16:36 pm
@Transformation-558: I suppose it’s a personal view but it’s something I saw a lot growing up and now leading into the new SA. Almost all of my friends and peers have had their eyes opened in a big way, even the guys who’s parents made them beleive that black people were the enemy and beleived that they had a right to treat black people like inferior human beings have started to come around.
19 Sep 2012, 16:37 pm
@rossoneri-559: It’s funny Cheeky Watson can defraud the poor people of the EC all he wants and you will still hold him in high esteem. It’s a pity you cannot let go of the inherent racist within you.
19 Sep 2012, 16:38 pm
@Skeppie-556: madiba is one man and he certainly doesn’t think for a nation. he was granted his wish to keep the springbok emblem out of respect but certainly not out people accepting pre-democracy springbok history…go watch invictus again and see the dramatisation of that moment…
19 Sep 2012, 16:39 pm
@Skeppie-561:
Guess what
They’re still the enemy
19 Sep 2012, 16:44 pm
@Dawn-564: No man, that’s racist.
19 Sep 2012, 16:44 pm
@rossoneri-559: You mean a similar movie trick to the SA Government of the day…? Men in Black may actually be apt…
I dont see you combating institutionalised corruption, legislated genocide by neglect as in prevention of administration of ARV’s, brutality against South Africans at Marikana because a shareholders happens to be a high ranking ANC member, racial employment policies, racial investment policies, sanction of murder and rape by neglect…
Is it because you dont see these things either?
I suspect it is because you are nothing but a cowardly liar and hypocrite…
19 Sep 2012, 16:44 pm
@Skeppie-562: Why don’t you tell me about it. I’m all ears. What did Cheeky do to make white people hate him so much. Seriously. I want to know.
19 Sep 2012, 16:45 pm
@Skeppie-560: “I just wish you maybe realised that there are more anti racist white people than you think in this country.”
i know that, i grew up around white folk who weren’t racist most of my life so this is not even a point…i was introduced to rugby but wasn’t encouraged/indoctrinated to hate the bokke but to see them for what they are – a team that was selected on racial grounds and did not represent me as a child of this country whatsoever – that being said, i’m a Bok supporter!
19 Sep 2012, 16:45 pm
@Transformation-563: Ok well on this one I will side with Madiba, you take the other side
19 Sep 2012, 16:46 pm
@Transformation-568: Ok Ok, it’s nearly 5 o clock……are we drawing a line under this?
19 Sep 2012, 16:47 pm
@Transformation-557: What are you talking about now?
Why you deflecting?
Scared of another Rhodesian rogering?
19 Sep 2012, 16:47 pm
@Skeppie-570:
Guess what
You’ll never draw a line under this
19 Sep 2012, 16:48 pm
@Heavens Game-566: I never said the current government is perfect, and your deflection won’t get you out of this one. I asked whether you agreed that all white people were brain washed in the apartheid days, like the Men in Black guys operate, and thus cannot be held accountable for cowardly standing by and accepting the fruits of apartheid. Easy yes or no question.
19 Sep 2012, 16:48 pm
@rossoneri-567: I don’t hate him, it’s just symptomatic of our current political climate…if you were a part of the struggle you can do whatever you want in the new SA….you can steal millions meant to go towards helping the poor of this country, you can murder and get away with it, drive drunk, rape etc…as long as you were on the right side of the struggle you will be ok. Maybe spend more time looking at the SA of today and less of the SA of yesterday.
19 Sep 2012, 16:49 pm
@Dawn-572: ——————-
19 Sep 2012, 16:49 pm
@Heavens Game-566: blah blah blah…all hogwash…
19 Sep 2012, 16:51 pm
@rossoneri-573: Anyone who murdered, raped, beat, stole etc cannot use brainwashing as their excuse so no, they have none. Crime is crime. But people who were not activist’s against apartheid when they were 10, 15, 20 cannot exactly be blamed can they?
19 Sep 2012, 16:51 pm
@Skeppie-531: check this bigot calling other people bigots.. do these bigots even know what a bigot is.. and since when is this ‘your’ country.. and not hers?
you got some serious realignment to reenact in your head before you realize exactly who’s a bigot and who ain’t and secondly who’s country it is you’re supposedly defending
19 Sep 2012, 16:52 pm
@fitz1ella-578: its yours and mine Fitz, equally, no-one better and no-one worse. She is a bigot because she is a racist, pretty simple notion that.
19 Sep 2012, 16:54 pm
gym calls…
19 Sep 2012, 16:55 pm
@Skeppie-570: Ok Tranise I understand you will not divulge what you do for a living but can I guess…..A marketing executive?
19 Sep 2012, 16:55 pm
suddenly all the boertjies of the 80′s are enlightened new age liberals.. taking an enlightened stand against the horrific policy standards of their parents.
biggest pseudo hogwash dream ever to have entered anybody’s brainwashed brain.
there were only a few of such real boertjie liberals and they either died off or were castigated by their own piers as traitors.. eg Beyers Naude and Van Zyl Slabbert etc.
19 Sep 2012, 16:57 pm
Skeppie at 574.
You made allegations of fraud. So tell the story. Dont hit and run.
19 Sep 2012, 16:57 pm
@Skeppie-579: she might have more of a claim to ‘this country’ than you or I do.. her forebears didn’t come here from another continent where ours did.
19 Sep 2012, 16:59 pm
@Skeppie-579: how do you call someone who takes a stand against racist policies a ‘racist’ ? I think perhaps you got the term ‘racist’ a little confused in your brain.
19 Sep 2012, 17:00 pm
@Heavens Game-566:
The last resort of the defeated whitie in the new SA.
Bringing up the kak of the current government.
Give it up HG.
19 Sep 2012, 17:01 pm
@Transformation-558: Not necessarily, but I think the point he’s making is that propoganda plays a HUGE part in any setup like apartheid, and children are especially vulnerable to having their viewpoints skewed by what they learned. The separation was total and a lot of white kids in those days grew up with no social contact with blacks, other than seeing them as servants. The same happens with religious sects brainwashing kids. Remember too in those days we didn’t have the time of information channels we have today where any news you wanted to know was close to hand….the govt & your parents decided what kids saw on TV, in newspapers, heard on the radio etc, if you were growing up sheltered in middle class suburbia, he’s right, many people had little idea of what was happening. Can’t speak so much for the adults though, must be said…..I can ell you that the vast majority of those kids today hold radically different views to what their parents might have. With the odd exception of course
19 Sep 2012, 17:02 pm
@fitz1ella-584: and where did european forebears originally come from? We are ALL Africans, divided by time and colour
19 Sep 2012, 17:03 pm
@fitz1ella-584: I don’t beleive she has a bigger claim than I do, just like I do not beleive I have a bigger claim than she does. I am not better than her and she is not better than me. Why do you think that I beleive I have a bigger right to this country, all through the course of today I have stated the exact opposite?
19 Sep 2012, 17:04 pm
@fitz1ella-585: If a brown person discriminates against a white perso is that not racism?
19 Sep 2012, 17:04 pm
@fitz1ella-582: Care to list your struggle credentials, you phony c*cksucker?
And no, building outhouses in townships doesn’t count.
19 Sep 2012, 17:05 pm
@Atreides-587: That’s exactly what I was trying to say, well put! Apparently my attempt made me a man in black?
19 Sep 2012, 17:07 pm
@rossoneri-583: The point isn’t around fraud, the point is that you seem to be happy to excuse any action today as long as the perpertrator of that crime was a “struggle” hero.
19 Sep 2012, 17:07 pm
@Skeppie-589: It’s a very, very dangerous notion, this idea of SA belonging more to one race than another. In all of recorded history, that ay of thinking ha done more harm than almost any other notion.
The Defecane of black tribes displacing the indigenous san (who are the ONLY ones who have always been here, never left) a sthey spread down Africa
The Afrikaners displacing the black tribes as they spread north
The British displacing both as they tried to colonise
The afrikaners and apartheid
And still we see this attitude of ‘this land is mine, not yours”
Eish…maybe that’s just how it is and always will be?
19 Sep 2012, 17:09 pm
@Atreides-588: who says so, professors of modern paleontology, that you are in fact ‘African’ by descent..? They might still be wrong, non of that stuff is factually proven, though its taught in academic institutions as gospel.
so that asserts your claim on this country as your own?
So if you are ‘African’ how come your features and skin tone is so ‘different’ from somebody else who’s recent lineage is quite different to yours?
And then WHY in the name of the architect of all this diversity did your parents try and isolate your heritage as ‘different’ or superior or ‘apart’ from those distinctly and directly more ‘African’ in heritage than they were or you are.?
19 Sep 2012, 17:10 pm
@Atreides-587:
For some reason those views tend to congregate on News24.
The one thing I realised during the apartheid years, was the refusal of most white adults to see what effect the policy was having and how it was being enforced. Any discussion about apartheid was banned at the gatherings of most middle and upper class english speaking whites as “we don’t discuss politics”.
19 Sep 2012, 17:14 pm
@fitz1ella-595: Fitz my parents always taught me that I was no better or no worse than anyone else in thos world, I was taught to respect my elders and treat all people with respect…where does this drivel of yours come from?
19 Sep 2012, 17:15 pm
@fitz1ella-595: I do believe that, yes. I don;t believe in young earth theory, and I believe in evolution over many millenia.
I make no claim on this country as being more valid than anyone else who chooses to settle here and work towards a good life
In my beliefs, my near ancestry is caucasian, but my prehistoric ancestry, like all modern humans, is african.
My immediate forebears settled back here in the mid 1800′s, long before apartheid happened. My parents never tried that, I would say they were quietly complicit (ie not activists) rather than directly guilty. ie we were not raised in a racist manner, or to belittle or look down on anyone, but obviously in a separate way. There were many decent middle class whites in SA in those days who were good people, but did not necessarily have the will or courage or resources or education to take up a fight against apartheid.
19 Sep 2012, 17:16 pm
@David-596: Yes that’s a very true point. I was directing my comment at the way young white kids grew up, you’ll notice at 2nd glance that I specifically was not referring to the adults
19 Sep 2012, 17:18 pm
@katman-591: little fuckwit pseudo English half boers arsehole runtcunts the type feeble fuckwits such as you ARE do not deserve and do not get afforded ANY kind of reasonable answer from the likes of me.. piece of halfboer pseudo trash … you want an answer feeble little fuckwit half boer pseud .. come get it straight between your pseudo little halfboer eyes fuckwit..
For any others who MAY be slightly inquisitive as to what my struggle credentials are or were.. I don’t have any.. I served in the SA defense force as a 17 year old.. or you STILL as dumb fck deluded as you always WERE..? Beside the fact that my own mother fought battle lines along same paths and conscientious principles as her peers like Helen Suzman and one or 2 others..
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