Currie Cup chaos

Western Province or Free State could reach the semi-finals of this year’s Absa Currie Cup without winning a single match in their section in the Premier Division of the competition.

This is just one of the incredible flaws shown up by the playing of the first weekend of Premier Division fixtures.

Western Province suffered a shock defeat to the Boland Cavaliers but still went to the top of the section of the log they’re in on the strength of two bonus points - one for scoring four tries and one for losing by seven points or less.

This is an upshot of a system in which Province and the Cheetahs are in Section Y but play all their so-called matches against Section X - which includes the Blue Bulls, the Lions, the Sharks and the Boland Cavaliers.

It is thus conceivable that the teams in Section Y, which also includes Griquas and the Leopards, could, as they did over the first weekend, fail to win a single match and still end up in first or second place; thus earning a place in one of the semi-finals.

According to the format in force the two top teams in each section will play against each other (X1 vs X2 and Y1 vs Y2) in the semi-finals with the winners advancing to the final on October 22.

So while Province, the Cheetahs, Griquas and the Leopards can muddle through their matches the Bulls, the Lions, the Sharks and the Cavaliers will have their work cut out to claim either the first or second spot. It could also result in a team with a 100 percent record losing it’s semi-final while another team with a much poorer record advances to the final.

This is not the only serious failing in a system that is almost certain to cause deep dissatisfaction and probably even a spate of law suits as it runs its course.

It has previously been pointed out that by having teams from the same sections contest the semi-finals a number of possible glamour finals such as the Sharks vs the Lions, or the Lions vs the Bulls, or the Bulls vs the Lions, or the Cheetahs vs WP had been eliminated even before the competition got underway.

Added to this Saru have yet to decide who will get home ground advantage in the Final as the finalists will not have played the same opponents in the league section of the tournament and will thus not be on the same log.

There are some proposals on the table, such as previous finals between whomsoever reaches the final, but with the competition already underway this important facet of the competition has been left unresolved.

In the interim, Saru’s President’s Council has also voted - and given some of what has been going on you have to question whether the presidents present were paying attention to what they were doing - to return to a strength-vs-strength system.

This is vital from two perspectives - the ongoing strength of South African rugby as well as the importance of providing the top unions with big, money-spinning games - but administrators have agreed to a Top Seven and Bottom Seven split without considering that, as things stand, they have no way of determining the separation of the 14 provinces.

The seven/seven split will result in a Premier Division (for the Cup) and a First Division but how to determine the top seven with eight teams playing in separate divisions in this year’s Premier competition? If all the teams do not play each other there is not going to be a 1 to 14 ranking and you just know that whatever means is used to make the split it will result in the teams dropping out of next year’s Premier Division resorting to legal action.

Another weakness of this year’s system, shown up in the Cavaliers’ shock win over their much bigger neighbours, is that teams have no need of keeping an eye on bonus points as they’re in opposite sections.

Once Boland had secured their bonus point and victory over Province they could relax as with WP in the other section any additional points conceded would not affect them.

Province however managed to score their fourth try in the dying seconds and by moving to within seven points secured another bonus point that took them to the top of “their” log.

And rugby officials would have us believe they know what they’re doing?