Super Sharks will win Currie Cup
22 Oct 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in Business Day newspaper, applauds the talents of Eben Etzebeth and Pat Lambie and writes the Sharks are the best domestic team in South Africa.
Eben Etzebeth made his Western Province Currie Cup debut a fortnight ago and is eligible to play in Saturday’s U21 final. He’s still a pup in terms of provincial experience and age but he’s definitely no pup in terms of performance.
He was colossal against the Lions in Western Province’s dramatic last minute Currie Cup semi-final victory. He commands presence, which explains the remarkable elevation from Varsity Cup player in 2011 to an eight-Test Springbok in 2012. A unique breed of player simply has it. Etzebeth is the newest international member of this club, and if he stays injury free he could become the most dominant of second rowers in the next decade.
He thrives on responsibility, especially when the crunch moments demand the tough to take the lead. We saw it in Super Rugby, most notably in the final 20 minutes when the Stormers repelled a Lions fightback in Johannesburg to win. Etzebeth towered above the rest that night and at the same venue, against the provincial Lions he effected a result of similar significance for Western Province players, who earlier in the year had played in the guise of the Stormers.
Etzebeth is among the 10 nominations for South Africa’s Player of the Year and while my preference is the revitalised and rejuvenated Western Province, Stormers and Springbok wing Bryan Habana, a more appropriate reward for Etzebeth would be the Rookie of the Year.
He plays with the authority of an old head, but the emotional maturity should not disguise his youthfulness. He is also an enforcer who lacks the crassness of a thug. He can impose his physicality without resorting to cheap shots, which is refreshing. There is more Brad Thorn to his persona than Bakkies Botha because he has the calmness a young Botha’s personality did not accommodate. Botha had mongrel but Etzebeth’s aggression is measured. The old dog can certainly teach Etzebeth a trick or two, which is why I’d select both for the end-of- year tour, but the emotional maturity and seemingly contentment of Etzebeth is unique among young international second rowers.
Etzebeth’s influence was massive in the lineout take and subsequent 20m maul that crushed the Lions in the last play of the game. Lions’ supporters would rightly have cursed his presence on Saturday night, but as South Africans they will have many a Saturday in which they’ll celebrate the fact he’s a South African who plays for the Springboks.
Another youngster who plays with the maturity of a veteran is Pat Lambie. National coach Heyneke Meyer has been reluctant on Lambie. Why? Who knows?
Lambie has shown his class as a person through a winter of frustration at national level. Picked as a bench warmer and only viewed as a fullback option he never spoke out against the coach and never threatened of a move to French or English club rugby. He spoke only when given a chance to start at flyhalf for the Sharks and his speaking came by way of performance. He was more commander than cavalier against the Bulls in the Sharks 20-3 semi-final victory.
He looked more Dan Carter than Quade Cooper in controlling the semi-final, which is a compliment of his class.
Lambie, two seasons ago, was brilliant in the Sharks’ Currie Cup final win against Western Province, but his versatility has been to his detriment. He can play 10, 12, 13 and 15 and he wouldn’t be out of place on the wing, but because of this quality he has become a jack of all trades when he has the potential to become the master of one.
Lambie really has been impressive at flyhalf in the most understated, yet effective manner. The hope is Meyer can review his earlier opinion that Lambie is a 15 and not a 10, and not fear misguided accusations that a change of opinion is because of a state of confusion.
Lambie, on the pending Bok tour, must get some game time at 10. Expect a big game from him in Durban on Saturday against Western Province. He’ll deliver because whenever he has been given an opportunity (not a 10-minute cameo role) the return has been a quality performance.
The Sharks were imposing and brutal against the Bulls and coach John Plumtree’s match 22 selection showed an understanding that play-off matches are determined more by the quality of the seven substitutes than the perceived pedigree of the starting XV.
The Sharks have been South Africa’s most consistent performer in Super Rugby and Currie Cup, with or without their current Springboks. They play the best rugby and they are South Africa’s best team. They will win the title on Saturday.
458 Comments
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22 Oct 2012, 20:49 pm
ET Lite @396
Dit lyk my jy het goed geleer by jou eertydse base soos Malan, Voster , Verwoerd etc…. so goed dat jy ook glad files hou van ander bloggers se posts (soos die ou veiligheidspolisie). Het jy niks beters om te doen nie?
Verduidelik vir my hoe ek gelieg het deur te se dat Armstong (volgens my) die beste TdF fietsryer van sy tyd was?….. Indien dit nie hy was nie, wie was dan die beste en hoekom? Gee jy voor die ander top ryers het nie verbode middels gebruik nie- weet jy dat feitlik al die ryers wat tweede gekom het gedurende die toere wat hy gewen het ook positief getoets is gedurende hul loopbane?
Kan jy enige van hierdie vrae na behore antwoord en motiveer hoekom ek kwansuis gelieg het?
22 Oct 2012, 20:51 pm
@Jinx2-398: You ?
22 Oct 2012, 20:54 pm
@Robzim-401: There are more drugs in cycling than at Hyperpharm.
I say – just allow the guys to use the drugs. It levels the playing fields. If they all want their tollies to shrink, and to get cancer in their ballas – then so be it.
22 Oct 2012, 20:56 pm
@Robzim-401: Why are you hurting the feelings of the Sharks supporters on here ? Shouldn’t you be stocking up on tissues and anti depressants for Saturday evening ?
22 Oct 2012, 20:56 pm
Domzim the more you commit yourself to the ‘Army’ cycling scandal defense the more ridiculous you come out in this fiasco of the biggest sporting doping scandal.
With these words look how appallingly ridiculous the claims of knowledge you seem to have come across relative to those worldwide involved in this investigation firsthand?:
a) ” I have not defended him for taking drugs…. I said he is the best TdF cyclist of his generation whether he took drugs or not- ”
b) ” and i stand by it……. or do you think he took more drugs than the other top guys?
Are you claiming that you know the blood drug analysis results of a generation of Tour cyclists from all over the globes countries?
Care to explain why he(and other individuals) have been found out but only he(Lance Army) and his TEAMS repeatedly and thus serially but not the teams of other guilty cyclists and not serially have been exposed and made an example of?
As for the claim of “best” in a) not even the world’s best exercise physiologists will make that claim(and especially in that murky dirty drug scenario) and they have the knowledge and you DO NOT.
The numerous and different investigators, experts all, know Lance took more drugs than the other top guys” and they saw the blood analysis results of all and any they wanted to and needed to see before banning any cyclist. What have YOU seen or examined?
Do you not feel utterly and inconceivably ridiculous as you merrily suck information from wherever ,on your person, and whenever, all in the pursuit of ‘boertjie’ is riight and might?
22 Oct 2012, 20:56 pm
@Dusky-402:
I’m a teacher.
22 Oct 2012, 21:01 pm
@Jinx2-406: Sorry to hear.
22 Oct 2012, 21:04 pm
@Dusky-403:
I believe they are “winning’ the battle against drugs in cycling slowly but surely- there are indications of downward trends in indicators such as climbing times and output or watts per kilogram bodyweight – the sport therefore seems to be getting cleaner (even before the Armstrong fiasco) but it will probably never become pure, because human nature never will.
If you ask some people whether they wil take drugs knowing that they wont make 50 as a result but that it will guarantee them a tour win or an olympic gold they wil take the drugs. Scary, hey?
22 Oct 2012, 21:04 pm
@Mostofyou-405:
Forgot to list, for the ignoramus, the many drugs:
Testosterone, Corticosterone, HGH, EPO, blood/own RBC doping(if you understand), plasma and saline transfusion(for dilution purposes) and noy all yet.
Which other cyclists have that harmful, even deadly combination and for so very long to answer for? And had their wives come out against them in the investigation even for just ‘butter’?
22 Oct 2012, 21:07 pm
@Robzim-408: Dude, it starts in school already. I know doctors in Pretoria that will prescribe anabolic steroids to you without batting an eyelid.
22 Oct 2012, 21:12 pm
@Dusky-410:
22 Oct 2012, 21:13 pm
Domzim-408:
Who cares what you believe.
You cut so pathetic a lying figure that your Verwoerd clan even now become my “leaders”. I alone follow where I alone lead and I have NO Ossewabrandwag, Broederbond, Ruyterwacht or such leaders to call upon. Nver had and never will With your boertjie name can you honestly make the same claim. Just look at how easily lying comes to you much like it did for those of yours I named. Tell us your paternal name or STFU>
Janee soos hulle se(jy ken mos jou kappie), LIEG soos ‘n BOER, dis julle dit.
22 Oct 2012, 21:26 pm
@Mostofyou-405:
You have obviously not answered any of my questions.
You ask how I know that the others took drugs? Obviously I have not seen the results of all the tests but there is circumstantial evidence as in the case of Lance. Do the names Jan Ulrich, Bjarne Rijs, Floyd Landis, Alberto Contador, Alex Zulle, Andreas Kloden, Ivan Basso amongst others ring a bell? Do you know that they have all been tested positive or at least made payments to stop further investigations against them?
In his autobiography, “Stages of life and dark” the previous winner Bjarne Rijs matter of factly characterised doping as a part of his profession during his race years- – he in fact called it “ the circumstances of the business” for the time.
You obviously know better than Rijs.
I can go on all night…it was a murky dirty business and Armstrong performed the best amongst the whole dirty bunch—therefore IMO he was the best of his generation.
22 Oct 2012, 21:26 pm
Domzim lol.
Funny.
Shaun stop trolling for names. You can just call him baas. OK?
22 Oct 2012, 21:26 pm
Domzim, here is my global evidence. Now furnish me with your defense evidence :
Lance Armstrong Stripped of 7 Tour de France Titles, Banned for Life After Doping Scandal -the Headline
The global governing body of cycling today said it will officially strip Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and ban him from the sport for life, marking an epic downfall for the cyclist once lauded as the greatest of all time but now at the center of a doping scandal.
“Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling,” Pat McQuaid, the president of the International Cycling Union, known as UCI, said today at a news conference in Switzerland. “This is a landmark day for cycling.”
The UCI’s decision comes days after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency banned Armstrong from the sport for life for alleged use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. The USADA issued a 200-page report Oct. 10 after a wide-scale investigation into Armstrong’s alleged use of performance-enhancing substances.
The agency said its investigators interviewed 26 people with direct knowledge of Armstrong’s alleged doping, including 11 teammates, and collected 1,000 pages of evidence accusing him of cheating
Quaid accepted the USADA’s sanctions and said he was “sickened” by the evidence in the report, pointing to testimony from one of Armstrong’s former teammates David Zabriskie, in which he details how he was allegedly coercing into doping.
Armstrong tried to fight the USADA ban in court, but told the USADA in August that he wouldn’t fight the doping charges against him. He has maintained he never cheated.
Armstrong made two appearances this weekend at the Livestrong Foundation’s 15th anniversary charity gala, but did not concede much in the way of an explanation or apology for the alleged doping that cost him his medals and lucrative sponsors.
“People ask me a lot, ‘How are you doing?’ And I tell them, ‘I’ve been better but I’ve also been worse,’” the cancer survivor said. “This mission is bigger than me. It’s bigger than any individual.”
Armstrong stepped down as the chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the cancer charity commonly known as Livestrong that he founded in 1997, a year after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer at age 25. He resigned last week to “spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy.”
Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Trek Bicycles are among the companies that severed ties with the cycling star last week in the wake of the scandal. Oakley sunglasses cut ties with Armstrong today after the UCI decision.
As Armstrong’s sponsorships and reputation have fallen off a cliff, the silence surrounding his alleged doping methods over the years has begun to crack. In the USADA report, teammates describe years of systematic doping, using banned substances and receiving illicit blood transfusions.
A former competitor, Stephen Swart, testified in a deposition that Armstrong bribed him to throw a race with a $1 million prize. Swart said he was offered approximately $50,000 to allow Armstrong to win.
The USADA also accuses Armstrong of trying to intimidate witnesses.
Former Sports Illustrated reporter Selena Roberts said Armstrong and his inner circle tried to turn her into a villain with her bosses and smear her reputation personally when they heard she was investigation doping allegations.
“I don’t really think there’s any politician, celebrity or athlete who has really put together the machinery to suppress reporting about them like Lance Armstrong has,” Roberts said.
Roberts said Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation was never far from the surface, something others have referred to as his “cancer shield.”
“You’re confronted with sort of the perception that if you’re not pro-Lance, then, absurdly, you’re pro-cancer,” Roberts told ABC News.
Former Bicycling magazine editor and chief Steve Madden wrote about Armstrong’s alleged influence in a blog post: “Armstrong exerted a Corleone-like influence in the cycling industry … he could make an advertiser disappear from our pages.”
McQuaid said the UCI will meet Friday to discuss the fate of Armstrong’s 2000 Olympic bronze medal.
With the UCI decision, Armstrong might face multimillion-dollar lawsuits from ex-sponsors and might have to return about $4 million in cash prizes that he has won since 1998 as a seven-time Tour champion
22 Oct 2012, 21:27 pm
@Robzim-413: Who are they going to instate as winners now? I think they will struggle to find a non positive amoungst most of the podium guys,
22 Oct 2012, 21:32 pm
@stormersboy-416:
They will probably not declare any winners for those 7 years- unless ET or his cousin can find a clean one
22 Oct 2012, 21:35 pm
oh dear, has keo become a cycling blog?
back to rugby……
lambie v jantjies…..
lambie is like a junior jonny wilkinson.
jantjies like a junior carlos spencer.
both excellent in their respective roles.
22 Oct 2012, 21:38 pm
@charo-418:
I liked the mental toughness of Schreuder as well. WP must make a plan for this geezer.
22 Oct 2012, 21:40 pm
@Jinx2-419: You think Schreuder has a future at flyhalf?
He’s big enough.
22 Oct 2012, 21:42 pm
Domzim-413:
You asked questions? And they are based on what are outright , worldwide accepted LIES? You expect responses to ‘pinkpiggy’porkies?
Who truly are you? Are you any of Verwoerd, Vorster, Botha, Malan, DikPik gracing us from the dead?
Do you expect me to answer ANY question from YOU that stems from a LIE you cannot emotionally accept?
Will you ever have any worthy question ever in your life? Imagine what your offspring must feel like, and into this difficult fuure?
You have certainly no cycling questions to ask at all, let alone worthy ones, you LIAR.
GO hide in shame you Stellie moron. You are the personification of the laughing stock in the Cape.
22 Oct 2012, 21:43 pm
@charo-418:
Hi Charo
You have to admit rugby day after day can get quite repetitive!!
Bring on the bikes……. Opps, I forgot this is a rugby blog
22 Oct 2012, 21:47 pm
@carol-422: Hi Carol, will you be making your way to our shores next year for the race?
22 Oct 2012, 21:51 pm
@Domzim-417:
Get it right for just once Dommy. Two is more than one so it is always plural Thus it is cousinS. See the ‘S’
Thanks for the clan recognition and E.T. and I and other clan members will certainly do a better job than followers like you and the sports ADMINISTRATORS YOU SO FOLLOW.
Talk about sheep? Why do we even reference it to N.Z.?
Of course there should be NO winners. Declare those all NULL and VOID. That is how honour is restored.
In any case Lance has melted all the medals and now calls it butta, but he has to keep it a a very high temperature.
22 Oct 2012, 21:52 pm
@Mostofyou-421:
Yeah, if you cannot answer a question then you cop out by telling the person who asked it he has no right to ask it or that his questions are based on lies. No wonder you never got further than to act as a ball-boy for Chait and some of the weaker players of those days.
I have wasted enough time on you. Take care.
22 Oct 2012, 21:54 pm
@stormersboy-423:
Hello….
The race organisers have accepted my entry and taken the appropriate fee from my credit card!!
Guess that means I will hit Cape Town again in March wind and weather permitting!
You entering next time? I think two other Keoites are entered as well!!
But this is a rugby blog, not a cycling blog!!
22 Oct 2012, 21:55 pm
anyway i am out.
Night all
22 Oct 2012, 21:55 pm
@Robzim-425:
Is Mostofyou the ‘Saddo from Stevenage’?
22 Oct 2012, 21:56 pm
@stormersboy-427:
See you
22 Oct 2012, 21:56 pm
@Mostofyou-424:
Before I go… did you see the other that ET called you the “not so suave” member of the clan? U better take it up with him. Now I am out.
22 Oct 2012, 21:57 pm
@carol-426:That’s good to hear, to be honest Im not likely to ride, done my fair share of them back when it was still small enough to be fun (for me).
I’ll be doing more of the off road series this summer with my son I think.
22 Oct 2012, 21:57 pm
@carol-428: That’s the one.
Ciao
22 Oct 2012, 21:58 pm
@carol-428:
Hello,… Not sure…. here are so many cowards with multi-nic’s these days .CU in a bit, i must finish the dishes.
22 Oct 2012, 22:00 pm
@stormersboy-431:
That will be fun too….
Cheers
22 Oct 2012, 22:01 pm
@stormersboy-432:
Oh big yawn then….
22 Oct 2012, 22:02 pm
@Robzim-433:
Catch you later.
PS Thought about getting a dishwasher?
22 Oct 2012, 22:04 pm
@carol-436: Isn’t he married??
22 Oct 2012, 22:07 pm
@stormersboy-420:
I do. He has a bit of Joost and a bit of Honiball in him. Can mix it with the brekers and has the head of a general.
22 Oct 2012, 22:09 pm
Domzim-413:
How difficult is it for you?
Even when you want to give us a mere modicum of ‘truth’ you cannot as shown here: ” You ask how I know that the others took drugs? Obviously I have not seen the results of all the tests ”
Your sentence structure pre-supposes you saw some.
You saw NO TEST results ever.
Now go shower for an hour for you have so repeatedly aand shamefully wet with your piss that you simply cannot dry yourself any more at all.
Thereafter you may consume a bottle of Tassies to drown your sorrowful , lying sorrows.
If you profusely and manfully apologise for dreadfully but disdainfully harming the sport of cycling (all sport for that matter) by gloryfying drug use for a win then I may seriously save your face for you by giving you a bottle of LE BONHEUR Estate Wine 1995 Prima(it is a Merlot, Cab. blend) within days of that admission.
I will not hold my breath. The wine is saved.
22 Oct 2012, 22:14 pm
Where is the rugby?
22 Oct 2012, 22:19 pm
Everybody’s hungover. Too many anabolic steroids.
22 Oct 2012, 22:27 pm
Extraball has a HISTORY of drug ABUSE
HENCE the obsession
22 Oct 2012, 22:31 pm
That’s why he’s grown an Extra Testicle
22 Oct 2012, 22:38 pm
You flourish when you see a testicle? Yet you have never seen one in the flesh?
Shame, poor ‘soul’, you are not ever given a chance it seems.
Have you felt one. It is said to be “velvety to the touch”.
22 Oct 2012, 22:50 pm
oi gewaldt
23 Oct 2012, 00:14 am
Oh Boy! Seems I did cause a stir, a commotion, some chaos with my early morning 7am EST breaking news revelations about poor Lance ‘the Prance’ Army cheater in sports.
There appears to also be a boycott of sorts and Jokers was stoking those fires(good for him as he knows a good boycott).
But Jokers also smashed a ‘ boertjie’ lying ego to the state of loss of control of pissing. Poor soul. Maybe he got that Cheltenham git to insert a catheter for his peeing problems.
He needlessly asked for the thorough dressing down and naked exposure though with all his arrogant lies. lies and more lies(and he dares to call them “questions”).
Jokers, got to hand it to you with that ever so cool name of “Domzim” you christened him with. You have learnt the ploys of the non-racial struggle so very well.
Fun times lie ahead for us in late Nov. when I am there.
23 Oct 2012, 00:44 am
So many times i see this ant and elephant ego’s here on Keo.
Don’t ask who the elephant is. But these idiots who think they’re blogging fundii and artists of the debate are definitely the ants. Take Et and whatzisface. What are you on about??? You don’t even realise how lame your reasoning sound. Always looking, never succeding evidently, to rid yourself of the inferiority complexes you so obviously suffer from… Especially when you start getting o-so-serious and “….”intellectual”….”
Why don’t you just have normal conversations? Have you asked yourself that question? Agree/ disagree/ have an opinion/ don’t/ reason/ debate… do all that. But why do you strive for attention so much that you have to decieve yourselve so much… ?
why indeed. anyway >>>
23 Oct 2012, 00:55 am
If putting your ideas together so haphazardly in poor sentence structure is so appalling and you cannot spell a simple word like “succeding”(correct form is SUCCEEDING) why should anyone take note of you?
23 Oct 2012, 02:32 am
And now I am left to adjudicate this “Domzim” debacle that he deems to be a ‘debate’.
My reading of the relevant posts reveals false claims being later made.
For example, “Domzim’s” post 413 @21.26pm. refers to questions (presumably asked before #413) which are more than answered by Jokers post #415 also @ 21.26pm(so they cross the internet wires in midstream) and evidence is provided by Jokers and he asks for “Domzim’s” evidence which is never forwarded by Dommie
I read one seeming question about lying in “Dommie’s post 401 unless he refers to question/s put days before(last week). Those I know were deemed to be no questions as he (Dommie) made too many suppositions of knowledge he has not an iota of such as blood drug levels of generations of cyclists in all those Tours won by the ‘Army’ Postal Teams
Read post #415 again “Domzim” as I know it requires a lot of intelligent interpretation of some good, somewhat heavy English writing in the US media. It may be just too much for a Stellie ‘boertjie’ with less than average English skills.
I seriously doubt you even read it as you exhibit more concern of a truly false image you have of yourself totally governed by cultural dynamics all self-imposed though.
23 Oct 2012, 04:23 am
“Domzim” for quite a while now, over a number of mostly S.African issues you have exhibited a lack of earmarking that which is distasteful to a large per centage of ordinary, honest people in a variable, highly differential cultural society.
Glorifying and celebrating absurd acts of human behaviour such as military or rugby player violence(Burgers etc.) and their vile or foul acts or language, cheating with drug use to win global sporting trophies, discussion, with a lack of sensitivity to living victims, of questionable and discredited ‘national service’ activities( against no other nation but fellow S.Africans of colour) seems to escape being deemed obnoxious and ugly by you. Is this the effectiveness of the stubborn ‘verkrampte’ culture revealing itself?
With a question and an analogy and a simple explanation I hope you see how serious this failing is looked upon.
When you have a large number of rotten apples in a large box of apples, discussing which rotten apples are better than other rotten apples is absurdly meaningless and immature.
Will you accept, normally, any of those rotten apples or will you instead get rid of all of them in order to save the good apples?
There are NO degrees of better or worse rotten apples as you will not eat any rotten apples(rotten is not simply blemished)
Absurdly you take joy from a rotten apple( a better cheat from my analogy) beating other rotten apples(worse cheats) by highlighting some, unknown to you (and all but the investigators ), blood drug levels affecting exercise physiological ‘facts’ and performances, as better and worse for many others.
Clearly the Postal Teams, led by LA , won because they had a ‘better’, more physiologically and biochemically and pharmacologically effective cocktail of drug regimens than opposing teams wrt cardiology, respiratory , endocrinology, neuro-muscular and more systems.
In all seriousness is that to be applauded and celebrated and glorified.as you do with your declaration of “best” of a totally rotten lot on a podium for year after year after year?
How happy will you be when you hypothetically learn 2 months from now that the Sharks win on Saturday because they were all on steroids the last 6 weeks even though some WP players may well be consuming numerous bottles of cough mixtures and more(difference is a mere degree)?
Is it not decidedly ABSURD, the ignorant and stupid claims you make?
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