No pressure on Province
24 Oct 2012
JON CARDINELLI writes that a young and depleted Western Province team is likely to lose this Saturday. It’s a probable outcome that shouldn’t be met with the typical public lament.
Neither the Stormers nor Western Province have won a title of substance since 2001. It’s a fact that’s shaped public expectation ahead of every subsequent campaign.
When the Stormers fail in the Super Rugby competition, the inevitable public fall-out is soon followed by a greater sense of expectation in the Currie Cup. The pressure builds with each failed campaign, as does the expectation. The situation is rarely taken into account.
I’m not suggesting that we should accept the Stormers and WP are not good enough to win a title. For a top franchise or union to go 12 years without winning a big trophy… it’s indefensible.
This is the only conclusion one can reach when considering the bigger picture. However, you also have to accept that there will be seasons where the Cape side is weakened and depleted, and so cannot be expected to go all the way. And 2012 has been one of those seasons.
If one is to consider the situation, the Stormers overachieved in this year’s Super Rugby competition. Their situation was so dire that they were asking club players to start in their back row towards the end of the tournament.
In spite of the injuries, some of these to key personnel with international experience, the Stormers were able to finish at the top of the Super Rugby log. Yes, they played their semi-final at Newlands, but they were always going to be the underdogs fielding second- and third-choice provincial players against a Sharks side stacked with Springboks.
When the Cape public lifted itself out of yet another period of depression, they grew optimistic. Surely WP would set things right in the Currie Cup?
But national call-ups and further injuries continued to undermine the Cape crusade. Schalk Burger, Nizaam Carr, and Nick Koster were always considered doubtful to return in the domestic competition, and it didn’t help when the likes of Dewaldt Duvenage, Siya Kolisi, Rynhardt Elstadt and Kurt Coleman succumbed to season-ending injuries. Then returning Boks of the calibre of Jean de Villiers, Andries Bekker and Tiaan Liebenberg were ruled out of the Currie Cup play-offs.
When you add up all of these losses, how can you realistically expect WP to beat the Sharks in Durban?
I’m not saying it’s impossible, I’m merely stating that it’s unlikely considering Province’s handicap. It would be a miracle if they could pull it off, but it wouldn’t be a disaster if they did not.
You have to give Allister Coetzee and his coaches credit for the manner in which they have responded to the challenge this year. The Stormers won the South African conference trophy and topped the Super Rugby log in spite of crippling injuries to key players. A young WP side has been further depleted over the course of the Currie Cup, and yet they are still through to the final. It speaks volumes for the team culture and structures.
I don’t think the guts as well as the collective clout of this Province side will be sufficient this Saturday. My statement is made in the context of who they are up against: a Sharks side that is stacked with players that have not only won the Currie Cup twice in the past four years, but also players that have won greater accolades at international level.
There is individual brilliance in this Sharks side, but there’s also a strong sense of unity. And it would follow that a united Bok-laden Sharks team playing in Durban would be too strong for a united-yet-understrength WP side.
People like to look at the newspaper and see the world in black and white, not in shades of grey. Teams are either excellent or rubbish, individuals are either heroes or villains. I expect that the Cape newspapers will run the same old headlines on Sunday, and there will be very little perspective. The Sharks will be heroes, and WP will be villains.
And yet, perspective demands that we see Province’s task as immense. The Sharks have all the advantages and if they were to lose, it would be regarded as a choke. For WP, however, a loss could not be aligned with the disappointments of yesteryear, even though it will go down in history as yet another lost final.
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359 Comments
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24 Oct 2012, 10:53 am
@Gumboots-240: Carry on, carry on. I’ll boycott this site and this is not an empty threat.
24 Oct 2012, 10:54 am
@David-237: @Finfan-236: Yep he does not belong on a Rugby field, there is no place for him in the bock setup
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-241: He didn’t have to, but you can only play the ref and what is in front of you…. you guys lost that game before it even started.
24 Oct 2012, 10:55 am
@Finfan-251:
Why tell me that? Tell the owner of the site…
So we have to watch what we say now… Some are blessed with a sense of humour I guess.
24 Oct 2012, 10:56 am
@Mr Black-225: really?
you’re just obsessed with having a dig at me that’s all.
as for Rosso, she can answer for herself…
24 Oct 2012, 10:56 am
bock = bok
24 Oct 2012, 10:58 am
I have to run! Have a great day all.
Cheers
24 Oct 2012, 10:59 am
@wnbb-246: cue GoYouGoodThing and John Galt
24 Oct 2012, 11:01 am
@wnbb-246:
Yawnathon. Old news.
@Transformation-257:
hehe.
24 Oct 2012, 11:01 am
@Transformation-254:
So how about those Kings?
24 Oct 2012, 11:02 am
@Transformation-257:
What the hell went on here yesterday with HG etc?
24 Oct 2012, 11:04 am
@Mr Black-259: how?
24 Oct 2012, 11:04 am
hey ruckles…..
what’s all this whinging about your baby front row?
combined age of 62 ……….
tell alister to play the reserve props then (same combined age)……
for crying in a bucket.
24 Oct 2012, 11:08 am
@John Galt-260: HG? i have no idea…
24 Oct 2012, 11:08 am
For Robzim and ET. Take the high road! Wiggins will have to conquer the mountains to defend Tour title – and route ends with Paris sprint at night
By IVAN SPECK
PUBLISHED: 22:03 GMT, 23
With the credibility of cycling now in tatters, this year’s Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins could be forgiven if he decides not to defend the yellow jersey.
And when the mountainous route of next year’s race is unveiled in Paris, he may not want to anyway.
Wiggins won the 2012 race over a terrain that suited his time-trialling pre-eminence and limited his exposure to the high-altitude finishes that trouble him.
For next year’s 100th Tour, the organisers have devised a course which offers little respite from mountains – even if a pulsating climax will see the peleton sprint under floodlights on the Champs-Elysees in the final stage with the Tour’s first night finish.
Tall order: The 2013 Tour does not suit Bradley Wiggins
The legendary peaks of Mont Ventoux and Alpe d’Huez will feature in a handful of summit finishes which mark the 2013 Tour as a race for climbers like Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck and Wiggins’s Sky team-mate Chris Froome.
Alpe d’Huez will be climbed twice on the same stage while the final stage on the Champs-Elysees in Paris will be held at night under floodlights.
While two individual time trials will entice Wiggins to compete, one of them will be over the hilly terrain of the Alpes-Maritimes, meaning that he may give serious thought to the advice of Shane Sutton, his mentor at Team Sky, to skip the Tour next year and concentrate instead on the Giro d’Italia in May and the Vuelta a Espana
24 Oct 2012, 11:15 am
@wnbb-264: I am seriously bummed about the Lance Armstrong story, just leaves a bitter taste (for the organising bodies). A true champion wont walk away from defending his title, no matter how hard the challenge. It is like getting a DNF in a race itself.
24 Oct 2012, 11:19 am
@wnbb-264:
Cycling is joke, compare it with WWE.
24 Oct 2012, 11:20 am
@charo-262: Our front row ‘be well and truly screwed’. Regardless of starters. The upper hand, along with the favourites tag is yours to wear. Do both justice
24 Oct 2012, 11:21 am
@KingTJ-265: Interesting changes to the tour next year.Have to say that the night finish seems exciting.Was on the Champs at night time earlier this year and can only describe it as one amazing place.Agree with you that Wiggins needs to defend his title.
24 Oct 2012, 11:22 am
I would rather watch the SWD Junior Jukskei playoffs than the Tour de Cheats
24 Oct 2012, 11:24 am
@KingTJ-265: The thing is, 98% of those who competed in the tours with Lance, were also doped to the hilt. So his wins are still (in a rather sick way), legitimate – in a field of cheating dopers, the fastest, fittest and best prepared cheating doper won.
It’s a very sad indictment on humanity, never mind the sport….
24 Oct 2012, 11:26 am
@Mr Black-266:
. They haven’t done their sport any favours I guess.Sad,because the Tour is one of the great sporting events of our time.
24 Oct 2012, 11:30 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-270: True.The governing is in one great pickle here as they can’t just go and dish Lance’s title to the next guy.
24 Oct 2012, 11:30 am
@wnbb-272: governing body
24 Oct 2012, 11:30 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-270:
Wrong!
The winner should be the leader of the remaining 2%
24 Oct 2012, 11:34 am
@wnbb-264:
The tour is already too tough and they are making it even harder (specially for taller and relatively heavier riders like Bradley W)
Don’t be surprised if the cheating goes to another level in the future – stuff like genetic doping or cellular prosthetics or even the subbing -in of a clone during a rest day
People will long back to the days of caffeine, amphetamine, blood transfusions etc… and when the 100% human Lance Armstrong won 7 tours
24 Oct 2012, 11:34 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-270:
Rather tell us more about how much better the Sharks is than those wp babies
I like it
24 Oct 2012, 11:36 am
@Mr Black-276:
Is = are :blush:
24 Oct 2012, 11:36 am
@Mr Black-269:
Don’t for one moment think rugby or any other professional sport for that matter is so clean.
24 Oct 2012, 11:38 am
@Mr Black-274: Apparently the guy on the motorbike who folowed and filmed the leaders will now become the official winner. I personally disagree as a bike engine is probably almost as much of an aid as the drugs that the cyclists used. It really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
24 Oct 2012, 11:38 am
@Robzim-278:
Agree, not that you can call cycling a sport though.
24 Oct 2012, 11:40 am
@Finfan-279:
They where so loaded the guy on the bike was battling to keep up
24 Oct 2012, 11:42 am
@Mr Black-280:
I have surfed, cycled and trained in gyms for a lifetime but I still have zero muscles while some of the young rugby players seem to turn overnight into mini- arnold swatzeneggers. I smell a rat
24 Oct 2012, 11:44 am
@Mr Black-281: Sad truth is that the guy on the bike was most likely as loaded as the riders but just wasn’t tested
24 Oct 2012, 11:44 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-270: Yep, I agree totally… there should be a time limits
24 Oct 2012, 11:47 am
@Robzim-278:
Listen Rob, i know that Lance is your hero, and i know you probably use some “butter” aswell to keep up with Carol when you do the Argus, so i will try not to be so hard towards cycling in general.
24 Oct 2012, 11:48 am
@Robzim-282: no Lean Muscle Mass?
i feel sorry for you robbie
24 Oct 2012, 12:00 pm
@Mr Black-285:
Lol, she did accuse me of putting some special juice into her water bottle last time when she went so fast up chappies that she had to apply brakes.
@Transformation-286:
Yeah, maybe i must do lower reps and heavier weights like Johan Sadie did in pretoria to become bigger, stronger, heavier, and more clever
24 Oct 2012, 12:10 pm
@Transformation-286:
24 Oct 2012, 12:11 pm
Wait…how do we even know Nikita works for this site?
24 Oct 2012, 12:14 pm
Long time lurker, and decided to register because of the “Sharks leaving” debate. I for one don’t give a damn what WP supporters say – I have “won” far too many bets against my WP supporting mates over the last 5 years. Trouble is those same WP mates are terrible at paying up.
24 Oct 2012, 12:16 pm
@Robzim-275: I won’t be suprised if the overwhelming majority of professional cyclists cheat.
24 Oct 2012, 12:24 pm
@Anomander-290: Feck off. Shark supporters are not welcome here and pollute this place.
24 Oct 2012, 12:24 pm
@Mr Black-274: Must be honest….I put 2% in there, just in case there happened to be a ‘clean’ rider in one of those tours….
The reality is, even my figure of 2% is probably an inflated one.
More than likely 0%.
Let us not kid ourselves…..this doping was so widespread, and so well ‘known’ at the time, what utterlyfuckedup competitor would race in the TDF without using anything at all, when he KNEW every other competitor was doping at the time – open secret? Only a ****** my friend……only a ******.
One enters to win, not to finish last and make a statement that you are ‘clean’ and those TDF’s were testament to that. Why did the fellas who finished last not whinge and point fingers years back? Because those ending last….were just as guilty…
24 Oct 2012, 12:28 pm
@Mr Black-276: I’m trying so hard to win the hearts and minds of the polluters……
24 Oct 2012, 12:28 pm
@Dawn-288:
24 Oct 2012, 12:29 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-293: Fckno. R – e – t – a – r – d is a banned word?
Ok now the guppies are taking this insult sh y te a little tooooooooooooo far.
24 Oct 2012, 12:31 pm
@Anomander-290:
You Sharkies just don’t learn, do you?
24 Oct 2012, 12:35 pm
@David-297: Don’t worry – doubt I’ll post much. Too much b.ollocks spoken here usually. I generally just read in order to let myslef feel superior!
24 Oct 2012, 12:36 pm
@Anomander-298:
Oh please.
24 Oct 2012, 12:37 pm
@Robzim-278: All dirty my friend. My biokineticist and I once witnessed a ‘roid deal’ going down, in which an athlete (not rugby, cricket, soccer, or cycling) handed the sh y te over to a 15/16 year old kid, and the kid’s daddy pulled out his wallet and handed over the cash. It was so poignant, we actually waited for the group hug
Yes, we did take it further.
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