Bok coach is right to be worried

Were the coaches of Ireland, England or Wales in the massive crowd that watched the final Currie Cup league match at Loftus last Saturday, they would have left the stadium with worried frowns creasing their faces.

If ever there was a great advertisement for everything that is good about South African rugby in 2004, this clash between the Blue Bulls and Western Province provided it. In reality, there was little for the hosts to gain, so it was quite astounding how much passion their forwards put into it as they climbed into their WP opponents.

WP coach Carel du Plessis has complained that some of it might have been a bit over the top, but there was little that we have not come to expect in matches between these two sides.

When England complained about the Springboks following the Twickenham debacle in 2002, I made the point that nothing that happened there was less than common place in a top Currie Cup match back home. In those days the Sharks were the standard-bearers of physicality.

But to draw a parallel between the Sharks of 2000 and 2001 with the current Bulls side would be a gross injustice to the Bulls. While they pack a lot of testosterone into their approach, there is no denying the skill and the organisation they bring to their game either.

According to the team-sheet the Bulls were understrength, but as I wrote in my preview to the game, that might matter less to a Bulls team coached by Heyneke Meyer than it does to other teams. For when it comes to ball retention in those close forward drives, no-one can outdo the Bulls.

Du Plessis has spoken about working a way to stop the Bulls from driving before the final if his team gets that far. Good luck to him. I haven’t seen any team coming close just recently to stopping them, and full credit must go to Meyer and his support staff for the skills that have been instilled.

Certainly that old saying that South African teams cannot hold onto the ball beyond a few phases does not apply to the Bulls. Watching WP play against them was like watching a South African team playing against a New Zealand combination in recent years.

You just knew that if WP surrendered possession, it would be a while before they would be able to reclaim it; and invariably that is the way it worked out, with the Bulls hogging the ball for long periods.

What should have worried a foreign observer, however, is the knowledge that when you switch the attention away from the Currie Cup back to the Springboks, what you get is a basic fusion of Bulls tight-forwards with Province backs and loose-forwards. Now that is an awesome prospect, and in part explains why the Boks are now the reigning Tri-Nations champions.

And as good as the Bulls forwards are, so the WP backs are equally brilliant. Make no mistake, Bulls centre Ettienne Botha is a fine player, and he scored two good tries. But given the type of game the Boks are intent on playing these days, there can be no denying that De Wet Barry more than showed why he is in fact the man who owns the Springbok No12 jersey at the moment.

Jean de Villiers, Breyton Paulse and Marius Joubert were equally outstanding, and the interplay between De Villiers and his teammates in the buildup to the fifth WP try even had Bulls fans of my acquaintance applauding the skill levels. De Villiers is a special talent, and if Barry does have a challenger for the inside centre position, it might well be the blond guy who plays outside him on the wing for both WP and the Springboks.

So, given all these positives, why is there a little gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me that the intensity of these last weeks of the Currie Cup season might be great for the fans and the provincial rivalries, but perhaps not so for the Springbok prospects on their Grand Slam tour.

For if any foreign coach in the audience at Loftus was awed at the physicality of the Currie Cup match, he might well have been equally non-plussed about how it was that some of those players managed to get out of bed and face the world the next morning.

Equally perplexing from his viewpoint will be the expectation that they do the same in their provincial colours next weekend and the weekend after that, and are then expected after a break of just a few days to fly to Britain to start an equally passionate quest for what would be a historic Grand Slam triumph.

If the foreign coach in question is in possession of his marbles he would have thought about it, shrugged his shoulders and then allowed himself a slight smile. Some Springboks have been rested during the Currie Cup, but not that many. Even those who have been rested have had to sit on the bench on their off-weekends, which hardly stands up as the mental rest that they also need.

No, if I was Jake White I would be sorry that it was the Natal Sharks, with just two first choice starting Springboks in their lineup, who missed out on semi-final qualification, and not WP, who started the Bulls game with eight members of the side that beat Australia in the last Tri-Nations game.

That was of course before they lost Bolla Conradie to injury. How many more Boks are going to be injured in these passionate last few weeks?

The Currie Cup is a great competition with a great tradition. The players desperately want to do well in it and a grasp of the coveted trophy is something they all aspire to. But in future years something is going to have to give, and a choice will have to be made: Either we go all out for the Currie Cup and forget about an end of year tour, or we place a greater emphasis on the Springbok and their late season excursion and relegate Currie Cup to lesser importance.

Funny thing is, after seeing that Loftus crowd on Saturday and hearing the noise that was generated, I am not entirely convinced that if there was a referendum it might not be the Currie Cup that wins out. There is plenty international rugby during the southern hemisphere season, and the domestic competition still has a special pull.