First of all, congratulations to the Lions on their Currie Cup triumph. It really was well deserved. To the Sharks, well better luck next time.
Watching the Lions win the Currie Cup this weekend brought back memories of 2002 when the Bulls were in a similar situation. Back then, the Bulls constantly finished eleventh or twelfth in the Super 12, even going throughout the 2002 Super 12 season without a victory. This lead to Heyneke Meyer being axed as coach of the Bulls’ Super 12 side. After his exit, Meyer told the media that whoever takes over from him should not tamper too much with this side, because there were lots of great untapped talent in that group. This group had names like Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha and Danie Coetzee together with veteran Joost van der Westhuizen.
Meyer was kept onboard as coach of the Currie Cup team for that season and he also acquired the talents of a certain 19 year old fly half from Piketberg in the Western Cape named Derick Hougard. Hougard rose to fame in a pool match against defending champions Western Province where he just ripped them to shreds with his boot. As the season progressed he grew more in stature and he slotted a last minute penalty in extra time against a Bok-laden Sharks outfit. A week later Hougard produced the performance of his life in a very one sided 31-7 victory in the final on Ellis Park.
This started a Bulls dynasty that lasted until 2011 with five Currie Cup titles (one shared in 2006) and three Super Rugby titles to their name. Many of these players became Bok greats with Matfield and Bakkies Botha the most prominent joined by Fourie du Preez who emerged from Joost’s shadow in 2004. There are lots of exciting young players joining the Bulls at the moment looking to continue the legacy set by these giants and time will tell if they succeed.
But the Bull’s biggest challenge in starting a new legacy comes from the new Currie Cup champions, their neighbours the Golden Lions. What the Lions and 2002’s Bulls showed us is that you can fill a team with superstars for a quick fix, but you must dig deep to make them champions. WP and the Sharks are by far the two teams in South Africa that has made the most and biggest star signings in the last couple of seasons.
Just look at Gcobani Bobo, Conrad Jantjies, Ricky Januarie, Jaque Fourie, Bryan Habana, Luke Watson, Joe van Niekerk, CJ van der Linde etc. All of these players have played for Province sometime during the last five years. None of them have a trophy of any significance to show for it.
For the Sharks we’ve seen the likes of Bob Skinstad, Percy Montgomery, Gregor Townsend, Andy Goode, Gcobani Bobo, Meyer Bosman, Frederico Mendez (who also had a stint at Province) and, more recently, Frederick Michelak to name just a few. Some of these players managed to win the Currie Cup twice, but that’s it. In fact the only Currie Cup titles the Sharks have won in the professional era were when they relied more on bleeding youngsters like Pat Lambie, Frans Steyn, Ruan Pienaar (who both started their senior careers at the Sharks despite hailing from Bloem), Bismark du Plessis (same as Pienaar and Steyn) and The Beast while keeping faith in long serving veterans John Smit and Stephan Terblanche.
The same goes for Province. The WP team that won back to back Currie Cup titles in 2000 and 2001 had the likes of Marius Joubert, Percy Montgomery, De Wet Barry, Robbie Fleck, Pieter Rossouw, Braam van Straaten, Bobby Skinstad, Corne Krige and lots of other home grown talent. Or, at least youngsters who started their professional careers at WP. Not mercenaries from other unions or even from other countries.
How many star signings can a union like Western Province make before they begin to feel the financial burden? Isn’t this the real reason for Rassie not making any big signings for 2012? Province really could do with a decent front row after the failed investment CJ turned out to be.
Only time will tell if the current Lions outfit is the real deal. We can only wait and see if the likes of Josh Strauss, Elton Janties and Jaco Taute will go on and become big names in South African rugby.
The same can be said about Johan Sadie, JJ Engelbrecht, Flip van der Merwe and Jaques Potgieter. Will they, together with Pierre Spies, Morne Steyn and Dewalt Potgieter be able to resurrect this Bulls outfit that fell from grace in 2011 and create their own legacy?
Or will Province and The Sharks suddenly start winning trophies with big signings and force me to eat my words?
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