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, 18:22 pm
@Heavens Game-349:
Didn’t his grandson run over somebody a few years ago?
18 Sep 2012, 18:24 pm
@wnbb-344: Yes… Capo… You can copy and paste… just like Transie…
But just like Transie do you actually understand what you do copy and paste…?
I doubt it in this case, especially.
18 Sep 2012, 18:27 pm
@gunther-351: No idea, cuzzie… You tell me, especially since you seem to mix in that Ye Olde Constantia set of Robber Barons, Mercs and their descendants
18 Sep 2012, 18:27 pm
@nama1-347:
Houghton was a predominantly Jewish suburb at the time, and the “liberals” in Natal were anything but. The old UP never actually opposed apartheid, just supported white nationalism instead of Afrikaner Nationalism.
18 Sep 2012, 18:28 pm
@Heavens Game-338:
Don’t get all individual on me now HG. You know we are talking about ” white English speaking Souties from the Last Outpos”
Remember this was the conversation between mnbb and Skeppie. I then asked Skeppie my question when you felt the need to jump in.
@wnbb-305:
“No man,your people were happy to keep the status quo and voted ,time after time,to retain the apartheid system.”
@Skeppie-310:
” No my people did nothing of the sort. ……The Nats won the vote by a hairs breadth….The people who voted against are my people”
18 Sep 2012, 18:30 pm
The funny thing about that republican issue was the way Verwoerd duped the ‘souties’ to vote for it.They actually believed that SA would still have a big say in the British Commonwealth.So much for ‘souties’saying Afrikaners are ‘dom etters’.
18 Sep 2012, 18:33 pm
Another verse for the delusional jan boertjie:
O boere rugby dis pure meisies thugby
En jy is nie meer ‘n wonderlike ding
Jul rugby is vers te sag
En dit is om oor te lag / of; en dit word nou verkrag
Dis oorspronklik van die OssewaBrandwag
18 Sep 2012, 18:33 pm
@nama1-347: “white English speaking Souties from the Last Outpost” just gave a collective middle finger to it all…
However they did refuse to learn compulsory Afrikaans with any great proficiency while many learnt how to communicate in a black language…
Probably more whiteys who can actually speak or write a black language in the Last Outpost than anywhere else in SA… And not just because of the Sugar Barons either
You lilly liberal Capeys are big talk, but fark me you are as far away from being true African mukiwas in that little insular Capey bubble as the average Pom or Yank expat working in Mzansi now…
18 Sep 2012, 18:37 pm
@nama1-355: Individual? So you consider yourself a “Traditional Power” of some sort, hey Nama…
What, dont tell me… you and your forebears “traditionally” own 40% of the Richtersveldt and 20% of the Namib…
Jeez, your ego may have gone all BBBEE oversized in a hurry….
18 Sep 2012, 18:40 pm
@David-354:
Yes, but I was taking about the provinces as it was back then. The four of them.
If a single constituency like Houghton could vote in a parliamentarian election after election for 13 years, how was it that the whole of Natal and Cape Province could not even vote in one person between them for 13 years?
They were known as the liberal provinces at the time compared to Free State and Transvaal.
….but as you say, ” the “liberals” in Natal were anything but.”
They were Nats/Apartheid supporters.
18 Sep 2012, 18:40 pm
@wnbb-356: For you to think that Verwoerd duped many souties shows who the etter truly is…
Fark, most souties just laughed at the Nats… Took thepiss… Like they do now to all the tenderpreneurs and all those Nats like Kortbroek van Schalkwyk – great leader he is and was – with their snouts straight up their new masters’ backsides
18 Sep 2012, 18:42 pm
South Africa’s pet topic again, now that we are all talked out of the rugby I see……
It’s been entertaining.
18 Sep 2012, 18:44 pm
@nama1-360: No Nama… You clearly have no clue to the psyche of the souties of the Last Outpost…
That anti establishment takethepiss ethos is alien to the likes of you and many of you North South traditional powers and your need for netjies structures in rugby… and life…
18 Sep 2012, 18:45 pm
@stormersboy-362: Lol… Glad to have kicked off this little game for you…
18 Sep 2012, 18:50 pm
@Heavens Game-358:
So what you’re saying is that you did farkall to fight against it then. The whole of the Natal province stood idly by and watch this thing called Apartheid happening right under their nose and did not give a ratsarse.
Is that what you are saying?
@Heavens Game-359:
You know exactly what I mean.
Actually, the Nama people of the Richtersveld won their court case against the current regime re their traditional right to their land.
So they own 100% of the land including some diamond mining operations.
18 Sep 2012, 18:51 pm
@Skeppie-312: You also get rabid black
racism.We have to work it out.
18 Sep 2012, 18:53 pm
@Heavens Game-363:
More like “take the profit” if you ask me.
18 Sep 2012, 18:58 pm
I think the old outpost had sone of the biggest racists outthere and that was even before the influx of the embittered zimbos following the bush war.
As Nama points out, it was only suzman in parliament inititally, who took a stand. But I think it’s the boere who came full circle in their own lifetime, like that afr dominee who quesioned his entire conditioning, and took aim at the hereformeerde kerk that was most remarkable.
18 Sep 2012, 18:58 pm
@nama1-335: Helen Suzman was also infamously abandoned by the ANC when they came into power.
18 Sep 2012, 18:59 pm
@Heavens Game-363:
You have as little idea of the Natal psyche during the apartheid years as you have of WP rugby supporters. Natal, as an english speaking province, despised the Nats but supported apartheid. In a far more genteel manner, of course. Their sudden paternalistic love for the Zulus had far more to do with support for Gatsha against the ANC than it did for a respect for an indigenous people.
God, you talk ****.
18 Sep 2012, 19:01 pm
@Heavens Game-361: You don’t have to feel bad.Imean,after all said and done,you are Zimbabwean born and bred,and probably was still running around those tobacco farms whilst all that shite was happening down here.
18 Sep 2012, 19:02 pm
@cab-368: Yeah, well what you think is a moot point… Clearly based on farkall understanding either especially from a pillar van die ou transvaal now walking the streets of London trying to pretend he likes eating pies instead of boerewors and can actually say African without it coming out “Effrican”…
18 Sep 2012, 19:02 pm
The souties only ever really been interested in money. Look at Rhodes, that bent poefda, prob worse than bj Botha and vorster verster en kie combined
18 Sep 2012, 19:06 pm
@David-370: Rubbish man… What, you suddenly an expert on the Last Outpost and Natal souties now… Farkoff man. You farken don’t even know what Johnnies in Overport is about… Now you spouting off in a typical know it all Capey lilly liberal attitude common to the likes of educational refugee spouting Zille… You okes in that Cape bubble know farkall about SA past Graaf Reinet or the Wine Route… You really shouldnt pretend you actually do…
18 Sep 2012, 19:08 pm
@ryecatcher-369:
Not by Mandela.
18 Sep 2012, 19:08 pm
@wnbb-371: Nope… Clearly you are wrong… Why do Tobacco when sugar is much more simple and profitable… Especially in the Sugar Baron Last Outpost…
Yup, that legislated Sugar Act was and is very profitable for many souties…
18 Sep 2012, 19:10 pm
@Heavens Game-364: hahaha
But as you know, it’s basically impossible to convince someone of your views if he or she is unable to see your point of view, so it’s a bit useless really.
I shall content myself with observing this time.
18 Sep 2012, 19:11 pm
@Heavens Game-374:
I probably know, and have experienced far more about SA politics over the last 40 odd years than you could imagine, in that little bubble you exist in.
18 Sep 2012, 19:12 pm
Janee the souties plundered the continent bare, they been colonising everywhere eversince.
18 Sep 2012, 19:13 pm
Why don’t you all go get laid
18 Sep 2012, 19:13 pm
How conveniently the numbers and per centages of history are being distorted to acquire an acceptable and adequate, but nonetheless treacherous and false, image.
A simple question, how do those voting per centages go all the way up(from 1958) to 87% of whites who voted if not concertedly boosted by english of that last outpost and any other damn post?
18 Sep 2012, 19:14 pm
@Heavens Game-358: The previously
disadvantaged are the new NAtionalist party.Strongly recommended
reading”R>W>JOHNSON SOUTHAFRICA THe BRAVE NEW WORLD”
Author worked for the Helen Suzman Foundation.A compelling and
discouraging read.
18 Sep 2012, 19:14 pm
@cab-373: Rhodes… A legend… Pity his little Jamieson raid didn’t come off… Then the Boks might actually be playing Baa Baas or Sharkie type rugger instead of the netjies obsessed structure now which you okes van die ou transvaal are most comfortable… Cecil John – probably the only man in the world after which a country was named… Cape to Cairo Legend:lol:
18 Sep 2012, 19:17 pm
@cab-373:
> Look at Rhodes, that bent poefda, prob worse than bj Botha and vorster verster en kie combined
Yip, for once I agree with you
If his greed for gold didn’t cause the Boer War the country might have turned out quite different
A lot of farmers returning after the war found their farms destroyed by the Brits and had to go to work in the cities, a lot in the mines.
Rhodes and his friends replaced them with African mine workers as they could pay them even less, hence the 1922 Rebellion
18 Sep 2012, 19:17 pm
@David-378: I think you are probably wrong… Definitely probably.
And if not then no wonder politics are farked if you are such a kenner in that game as seen in the myopic bulldust you post from such an ivory tower dizzy height…
18 Sep 2012, 19:17 pm
And my goodness look who all are now trying to give these supposed ‘facts’, if not those from the perpetrator grouping itself?
How questionable must those not be and thus hurled into your collective ‘kakabalies’ as you sit with the spoils of all the ghostly Lonmins?
18 Sep 2012, 19:18 pm
lol – legendary poefda more like – if it weren’t for the boere we’d be getting pomped like natal did for 100 years before wynan claasen arrived from PTA and resucitated their rugby with mouth-to-mouth.
18 Sep 2012, 19:19 pm
Verwoerd offered the ‘Last outpost souties’ a few government positions for their absolute support for his Apartheid policies,which they gladly accepted.Although they might not have been happy with the policy of the day they simply were not prepared to accept blacks as equal social partners.
18 Sep 2012, 19:23 pm
Let me remind you:all of where you truly are:
O rugby boertjie jys in jou moertjie
En jy is nie meer ‘n wonderlike ding
Jou rugby staan op wag
Want jy is nie meer ‘n krag
Dis mos in jou Boeremag
18 Sep 2012, 19:23 pm
@Heavens Game-383:
> Rhodes… A legend… Pity his little Jamieson raid didn’t come off
Rhodes…a Mofgat… Pity they didn’t hang him and his bum chum Jamieson
18 Sep 2012, 19:24 pm
@cab-387: Fark off… No Banana Boy Natal soutie side ever got pomped by Die Manne van die Ou Transvaal… They just got pomped by the refs…
Claasen was always a bit of a soutie by heart but he wasnt there when that proper soutie Tony Watson scored the try to end any pretensions that the Last Outpost was ever inferior to any farken “traditional power” at the game played in heaven…
And when the souties win Super rugby next year, Last Outpost domination will be complete once and for all…
18 Sep 2012, 19:27 pm
@wnbb-388: **** man… I actually reckon you maybe dont even know what a soutie is…
Let me define it:
Soutie: A superior saffa… more witty… more intelligent… and a certainly better looking breed… Can often speak more languages than just Seffrican English and Voortrekker Code…
See?
18 Sep 2012, 19:29 pm
@victoriabok-390: Hey, we love Cecil down here in the Cape.We even got a memorial dedicated to his great achievements in Africa.
18 Sep 2012, 19:29 pm
@Heavens Game-392:
> Soutie: A superior saffa… more witty… more intelligent… and a certainly better looking breed…
Ha ha ou sproetgesig rooinek, ek skud my (groter) boeretril vir jou
18 Sep 2012, 19:29 pm
@Heavens Game-392:
18 Sep 2012, 19:32 pm
@Heavens Game-392: Sorry forgot the most important part… Let me redo
Soutie: A superior saffa… more witty… more intelligent… and a certainly better looking breed… Can often speak more languages than just Seffrican English and Voortrekker Code… And, as the moniker suggests, obviously possesses a jolly big joystick, certainly bigger than the average Saffa van die ou transvaal or those eunuchs van die Kaap… Probably bigger than the next biggest… a Zulu from Nkandla
Indeed, souties are the true spears of this nation.
18 Sep 2012, 19:33 pm
@wnbb-393:
Of course you will Daahling, he was the founding father(mother?)of the Cape Town LGBT Association
18 Sep 2012, 19:33 pm
@victoriabok-394: See post 395 and then come speak again… Spear of the Nation got nothing on a Soutpiel
18 Sep 2012, 19:35 pm
Rhodes should be a role- model for all aspiring business tycoons in South Africa.He was a great visionary of his time and single-handedly defined the British economic empire on the African continent.We should all aspire to be like Rhodes,a true marvel of humanity.
18 Sep 2012, 19:36 pm
@Heavens Game-396:
> obviously possesses a jolly big joystick, certainly bigger than the average Saffa van die ou transvaal or those eunuchs van die Kaap
Did the headboy tell you that during initiation in the Michaelhouse showers?
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