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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18 Sep 2012, 17:10 pm
ok i’m out folks
cheers for beers and good luck for your rugby (kiwis included).
18 Sep 2012, 17:11 pm
@Transformation-279: And rightly so, if our country was morally corrupt politically then action should have been taken, it was taken and today the people who were marginalised run the country with no opposition. The crime was punished. Why does rugby need to be a part of that?
18 Sep 2012, 17:11 pm
@Transformation-227: A permanent refugee in SA… lol… And the other couple of million Zimbabweans/Rhodesians here too… Generally the Zimbos black and white are more cultured and certainly better educated… Thats why the black Zimbos laughing all the way to the bank with BEE… Money for jam… Right skin colour and competence…
Meanwhile just the Zanu tenderpreneurs left in Zim eating their own tails…
The same inexorable way SA is going… But never mind this refugee, if it fcks out, I just go back to Blighty… or France.
The lot of the Rhodesian “Refugee”… No goddamn loyalty… except for the Boks, Sharks and of course the paycheck…
And that paycheck aint going anywhere because the Firm paying my salary aint Saffa so no chance of Zimbo style voodoo economics that your heroes Juliaas and Thabo are so enthralled with… Heck, if I asked my masters nicely they would send me straight back to blighty…
Until then I will just enjoy it here and watch the Saffa natives fck this land Zanu style in their tenderpreneur pig trough where they are happiest…
18 Sep 2012, 17:14 pm
@Transformation-283: Fuckyou… “Danie Craven was NOT a roving racist”… Not by any normal standards other than the Zanu wannabes in the Eastern Cape.
18 Sep 2012, 17:15 pm
@Skeppie-297: I did not say that the BOK team of that time was all racist,but it was your people that refused to share a toilet with a black man,a train ride,sitting side by side in a rugby stadium,sharing the same school,suburbs etc etc.No man,your people were happy to keep the status quo and voted ,time after time,to retain the apartheid system.Don’t be so naive to belief that the Nationalist government made the rules and the rest of your people were absolutely mortified by it.
18 Sep 2012, 17:15 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-295: again, have you been to NZ bakkies? serious question
how then can you ascertain what its like, because you read it somewhere?
why dont you go to Ferns favourite website “expatexposed”
you would never set foot into NZ if it was as bad as that site makes out… but I find it strange that so many people went to NZ for the World cup in 2011, of all races, colours and creed and 99% of them came away with memories to last themselves a lifetime..
you are one fcked up individual, to believe everything you read is seriously misguided..
good luck with that Bakkies, and please, dont ever come to NZ, we wouldnt want you to have to change your “filthy scum kiwi” opinion and think you may actually have your eyes opened..
18 Sep 2012, 17:16 pm
@Heavens Game-304: Are you a Zimbabwean refugee?
18 Sep 2012, 17:19 pm
@wnbb-307: No Capo…. I am as much a refugee as Teichman or Skinstad…
But if I were… Then fuckyou dumb slopeys too
18 Sep 2012, 17:19 pm
@Skeppie-300: When I say that all whites WERE racist,It was that they were inherently so.Any white liberal of the period
who denies this is a liar.
18 Sep 2012, 17:20 pm
@wnbb-305: What a very sad opinion that is. No my people did nothing of the sort. MY people are people who think like me and act like me, not english speaking or afrikaans speaking or white or black. My country shamefully voted in a terrible policy, but what about the almost half who voted against apartheid? The Nats won the vote by a hairs breadth….The people who voted against are my people so tell me now, why do you consider people against apartheid to be evil?
18 Sep 2012, 17:21 pm
@Skeppie-267:
SA rugby should’ve allowed NZ to select Maori’s then. Why did they not stand up to the politicians?
18 Sep 2012, 17:22 pm
@ryecatcher-309: Inherent racism is a truth, those of us who want to be better people fight agaisnt this daily. ALL south africans battle this afflication black as much as white.
18 Sep 2012, 17:25 pm
@Skeppie-310: You see?,there you contradict yourself.So,afterall,it is the people that determined the apartheid policy and voted it into law.Thanks for clearing that up Skeppie.
18 Sep 2012, 17:26 pm
@Heavens Game-308: I have no problem with Zimbabwean refugees,whether white or black,as long as they behave themselves in my country.
18 Sep 2012, 17:29 pm
@Skeppie-300: no person of colour was ever picked in close to a 100 years of springbok rugby, why didn’t the people you speak about stand up against what they knew was wrong?
how could they accept wearing a jersey that excluded the MAJORITY of their countrymen?
18 Sep 2012, 17:30 pm
@Transformation-279: A condemned regime… lol… True… And the current regime becoming nearly as condemned…
E he… giggle… E he Lets:
- Massacre some miners worse than any Sharpville or Boipatong
- Provide Iran with some nuclear fuel for a nuclear bomb program
- Oppose Israel with prejudice
- Have two SA presidents involved with arms deal corruption
- Harbour and adulate every 2 bit dictator the world over
- Hold up Mugabe as an absolute model of propriety
- Pissoff nearly every decent democratic state in Africa in a quest to claim the AU Presidency.
Giggle… E he…
Yup, most of Africa look on in amazement at the continual myopic fckups and excuses for competence in SA…
E.he.. Giggle…
Now let me go find another wife quickly… and maybe ask the GardenBoi whether he’s keen to be a director of a Broad Based Buck passing initiative I have in the offing…
18 Sep 2012, 17:32 pm
@Heavens Game-316: Were you a farm owner in Zimbabwe Heavens Game?
18 Sep 2012, 17:33 pm
@Skeppie-310:
Maybe you can explain something to me Skeppie.
Why, in the 13 years that Helen Suzman was the only voice of the opposition in parliament, was there no representative from liberal, English speaking Natal?
Sommer include the liberal, English speaking Capies also, if you can, in your explanation.
Also remember that the victory margin of the Nats increased from their narrow victory when they first came to power. Why do you think that was?
Truly serious questions.
18 Sep 2012, 17:33 pm
@wnbb-314: Is it your country? Because if you are pigmentally challenged as you no doubt are then you need to realise that Africa is for Africans only… Not colonists.. Azania is not your country my young one…
Ask Transie…
Azania is for the Zanu wannabes, tenderpreneurs and BEE Moguls… The rest, in the immortal words of Bob Mugabe, “Can go to H.ell”…
18 Sep 2012, 17:34 pm
@wnbb-317: No… Not in Zimbabwe… or Rhodesia for that matter?
Are you white, Capo?
18 Sep 2012, 17:37 pm
@Heavens Game-316: Why did you decide on SA as your first port of call?I know that many white Zimbabweans decided to go to Britain after the troubles they experienced living in Zimbabwe.
18 Sep 2012, 17:37 pm
@Heavens Game-316: so which country are you from again HG?
18 Sep 2012, 17:37 pm
@nama1-318: Maybe because the white English speaking Souties from the Last Outpost were persona non grata in parliament… Like they seem to be in the Bok side at the moment…
Ezwile?
18 Sep 2012, 17:42 pm
@wnbb-321: Because SA is a land of opportunity, no?
Many more dumbfck slopey suckers here to con or to take for a ride than in Blighty… And that what many Zimbos did… and still do… Why? Because they are generally just more clever.
Once Azania has been well and truly Zanufied then there’s always another country to go to as a Global Citizen… But for the mean while just get with it when the going is good…
18 Sep 2012, 17:44 pm
@Transformation-322: I hold an SA passport, ID Dompas and non forged Drivers License… What does that make me, Chumi?
18 Sep 2012, 17:48 pm
@Heavens Game-324: Ok,that’s a good reason.I was just wondering because it seems that you are not happy here in Africa.
18 Sep 2012, 17:52 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-251: Bakkies,can you please make use of that same shrink.
18 Sep 2012, 17:53 pm
@wnbb-326: Where does it seem I am not happy here in Africa?
Please educate me… Maybe you can outline it to me in the vernacular as the no doubt true South African or African you are, yeah?
How about a bit of an explanation from that great African in written Zulu or Xhosa… Or maybe even in Shangaan like Transie does now and again
18 Sep 2012, 17:54 pm
‘Siestog’ Tear-Beer Meyer, you truly are so limited.
You can “Talk the Talkie-walkie(doll if you wish) but you cannot Walk the Walkie-talkie” as that requires more energy and force to effect.
18 Sep 2012, 17:55 pm
@Heavens Game-323:
Actually, the last outpost did quite well in parliament as part of Sir Div Graafs SAP. They opposed the Nats but still couldn’t bring themselves to oppose segregation or equal rights. Neither could the Progs accept a universal franchise.
18 Sep 2012, 17:56 pm
@Heavens Game-323:
You did provide the Minister of Finance during the Nats reign but he was a Nat as well.
So, not so persona no grata in parliament, I think.
Maybe it was because you voted for them…. that was why you weren’t on the opposition benches.
Yeah, I think that is a much more plausible explanation.
18 Sep 2012, 18:03 pm
@Heavens Game-325:
So se jy vir ons dat “Chum” nie jou tjomis is nie?
Maar, om meer erntig te wees, weet jy dit maak geen saak wie Bier Meyer as lossskakel kies nie, of jantjies of Lambie of Goosen eenige een en almal van hulle sal mos “stelselmaatig agteruitgaan” wanneer hy(Bier M.) hulle begin afrig?
18 Sep 2012, 18:03 pm
@David-330:
Sorry, that should have been United Party, the later version of the SAP.
18 Sep 2012, 18:04 pm
@David-330: “Div Graaf”, you say? Thats a real Soutie sounding name like Patrick Lambie if ever I saw or heard one
18 Sep 2012, 18:05 pm
Helen Suzman
She gave up teaching for politics, being elected to the House of Assembly in 1953 as a member of the United Party.
She switched to the liberal Progressive Party in 1959, and represented the Houghton constituency as that party’s sole Member of Parliament, and the sole parliamentarian unequivocally opposed to apartheid, from 1961 to 1974. She was often harassed by the police and her phone was tapped by them.
Suzman was noted for her strong public criticism of the governing National Party’s policies of apartheid at a time when this was atypical of white South Africans, and found herself even more of an outsider because she was an English-speaking Jewish woman in a parliament dominated by Calvinist Afrikaner men. She was once accused by a minister of asking questions in parliament that embarrassed South Africa, to which she replied: “It is not my questions that embarrass South Africa; it is your answers”.
Later, as parliamentary white opposition to apartheid grew, the Progressive Party merged with Harry Schwarz’s Reform Party and became the Progressive Reform Party. It was renamed the Progressive Federal Party, and Suzman was joined in parliament by notable liberal colleagues such as Colin Eglin. She spent a total of 36 years in parliament.
18 Sep 2012, 18:05 pm
Nama, Transie, WNBB & Co,
You ou’s may as well stop looking for apartheid supporters
Going on modern opinion there were only 7 supporters across the entire land. 3 now reside in perth, 3 in the uk and 1 is still hold up in a bunker somewhere in die ou transvaal
18 Sep 2012, 18:08 pm
@nama1-331: Voted for “them”? Lol… You mean like your honourable brethren voted for their “representatives” in the Tricameral system… Ja, you “traditional powers”, Black, White and in between, did a good job fcking up the country like you doing a great job fcking up Bok rugby…
18 Sep 2012, 18:09 pm
@Heavens Game-337: For the record I have not caste a vote in SA, ever… Not before 94… or after…
18 Sep 2012, 18:12 pm
@Heavens Game-334:
He was a baronet.
18 Sep 2012, 18:12 pm
Often in this life, as much experience will demonstrate, you have to counter a destructive force with an equal or stronger counter and destructive a force, e.g. fighting fire with fire to stop the destruction and devastation of the original fire.
‘Verkrampte’ control pf rugby in S.A. is a destructive force as shown by curtailing or denying the captaincies to players like Bedford, Wynand Claasen(but not JohanCL.) and Hopwood amongst others.
Keep this idea in mind for the rest of your rugby lifetimes and as you read in the future..
18 Sep 2012, 18:13 pm
@Mostofyou-332: Chumi is nie my Chum nie… die waarheid…
“Bier Meyer”… Lol
Farkhim and this North South Traditional rivalry that is well and truly fcking up Bok rugby.
18 Sep 2012, 18:13 pm
@TooMuchRugby-257:
Don’t kid yourself that you have anything to do with intelligent rugby banter plank.
18 Sep 2012, 18:15 pm
@Heavens Game-334:
His Queen knighted him, so Sir De Villiers Graaf. to a “Soutie” like you.
18 Sep 2012, 18:15 pm
@Skeppie-310: in the Commonwealth would be determined only by her best interests.
Verwoerd
The question of apartheid dominated the 1958 election and the NP took 55 per cent of the vote, thus winning a clear majority for the first time. When Strijdom died that same year, there was a tripartite succession contest between Swart, Donges and Hendrik Verwoerd. The latter, devoted to the cause of a South African Republic, was the new Prime Minister. Verwoerd, a former Minister of Native Affairs, played a leading role in the institution of the apartheid system. Under his leadership, the NP solidified its control over South African, apartheid-era politics.
To gain support of the English-identified population of South Africa, Verwoerd appointed several English-speakers to his cabinet. He also cited the radical political movements elsewhere in the African continent as vindication of his belief that black and white nationalism could not work within the same system. Verwoerd also presented the NP as the party best equipped to deal with the widely-perceived threat of communism.
By the end of his term (and, as a result of his assassination, his life), Verwoerd had solidified the NP’s domination of South African politics. In the 1966 elections, the party won 126 out of the 170 seats in parliament.
By 1960, however, much of the South African electorate were calling for withdrawal from the Commonwealth and the establishment of South Africa as a republic. It was decided that a Republican referendum was to be held in October. International circumstances made the referendum a growing necessity. In the aftermath of the World War II, former British colonies in Africa and Asia were gaining independence and publicizing the ills of apartheid. Commonwealth members were determined to isolate South Africa.
There were numerous internal factors which had paved the way for and may be viewed as influences on the result:
Harold Macmillan’s “Winds of Change” speech, in which he declared that independence for black Africans was an inevitability;
Many white South Africans were unwilling to give up apartheid and realised that South Africa would have to go it alone if it was to pursue its racial policies.
The assertion that economic growth and a relaxation of racial tensions could be achieved only through a Republic;
The Sharpeville Massacre;
The attempted assassination of Verwoerd; and, most importantly,
The 1960 census, which revealed that there were more Afrikaners in the country than English, thus almost guaranteeing the NP victory in a Republican referendum.
Well,as you can see skeppie,your people decided the policy and not just a bunch of old toppies in parliament..
18 Sep 2012, 18:16 pm
@nama1-335:
You forgot to mention the Progs still believed in a qualified franchise, similar to the one in Rhodesia. The real tragedy was the banning of the old Liberal Party which refused to accept the restriction on single race membership.
18 Sep 2012, 18:16 pm
@Heavens Game-341:
See 340 the destruction is minimally revealed right there.
18 Sep 2012, 18:17 pm
Houghton in conservative, predominantly Afrikaans speaking Transvaal, at least sent a person to parliament to fight against Apartheid in the public sphere.
Liberal ” white English speaking Souties from the Last Outpos” in the predominantly English province of Natal cannot win a constituency to sent a representative to parliament for at least. 13 years
Now let’s see. You guys voted every four years. Between 1961 and 1974 there must have been at least FOUR general elections for whites-only. So, in four general elections the Nats won all the seats for parliament in Natal. How did they do it?
Voted in by the “Liberal ” white English speaking Souties from the Last Outpost,” that’s how.
“We” voted against Apartheid, my arse.
Later yes, only much later when the benefits were already their for the reaping.
18 Sep 2012, 18:17 pm
@wnbb-321:
Why did you go overseas Capo?
If we are asking 20 questions.
18 Sep 2012, 18:18 pm
@David-339: A nice little title bestowed on his Robber Baron Daddy by Her Majesty for services rendered to Blighty…
He is as soutie as the average little white picaninnie from Villierdorp that his family originates from… Not very soutie at all.
18 Sep 2012, 18:22 pm
To all you delusional rugby ‘fundis’ who live in a dream world and never quite understand the underhand forces at play, here is your ditty:
‘ O rugby boertjie jys nou in jou moertjie
En jy is nie meer ,’n wonderlike ding
Jou rugby staan op wag
Want jy het nie meer die krag
Dis mos alles in die Boeremag
The tune is inspired by the wonderful captain so aptly named by some.
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