Don't Condemn Straeuli on basis of Cup final

They may not be the top team on the field but the Natal Sharks and their entourage easily outstrip all other comers when it comes to the art of losing graciously.

The large Sharks sponsored billboard pinned up outside Cape Town airport welcoming Natal fans to "Whine country" is still there almost a week after the final whistle sounded on their failed attempt to wrest the Currie Cup title away from Western Province.

Only there is now one significant difference to the billboard - the jibe at Cape rugby's propensity for whingeing has been crossed out and replaced by a strip which congratulates WP on winning the trophy. A Sharks advert echoing similar sentiments also appeared in a Cape Town newspaper on Thursday.

WP have basked in their glory this week - and there is no denying they deserve all the accolades. It was indeed a magnificent Currie Cup season for the blue and white hoops, marred only by the solitary defeat to the Sharks on a day when the result mattered not a jot.

Yet while the best team in the country took the Cup, some of the comments and opinions that have circulated since the final are a little over the top. I dealt elsewhere on this site earlier in the week with the view that Natal choked. They did not choke - on the day there were beaten by a better team.

But it is important to emphasise the words "on the day". While Natal's lack of variation on attack has been well documented and I have expressed the view that more than anyone else the Sharks missed an inform Butch James, there was not really that much seperating the teams at Newlands.

The Sharks seemed genuinely surprised at the ferocity of the WP forward onslaught after halftime. By the time they woke up the flow of the game had changed and the Cup was out of reach. These things happen.

But the record between the Sharks and WP over the past few seasons does not back up the theory which seems prevalent in Cape rugby and journalistic circles that if the two teams met in 10 games the Province team would win seven or eight of them.

On the contrary, WP director Rob Wagner is probably right in saying that matches between these top teams are always 50/50 affairs, regardless of the venue.

WP do possess more subtlety and fire-power at the back, but there have also been many days in the past few years when the Province backs have not seen the ball in matches against Natal.

The Natalians have been described as dull, yet it is a fact that they scored 43 tries in the buildup to the final - exactly the same number as WP, who had their tally significantly boosted by one match against Free State towards the end of the top eight phase of competition.

Even in the final they were outscored in the try count and can thank their lucky stars for the metronomic efficiency of Braam van Straaten.

Although much maligned at stages of the season (I was one of his biggest critics), Van Straaten singlehandedly kept WP on the winning trail when often they played poorly enough to lose.

But what has inspired this column is the completely unfounded criticism of Sharks coach Rudolph Straeuli. It started in the hours after the match when people, many of them Durbanites who had been wholly supportive beforehand, wondered whether he had the bottle to push his team through in the big games.

What really took the cake was the opinion expressed in some Cape newspapers that Straeuli's failure to win the final should have been taken as a sign that he was not a realistic pretender for Harry Viljoen's Springbok coaching position.

What was overlooked here was the fact that Viljoen's first three Currie Cup final appearances all ended in defeat (I also seem to recall there was a Lion Cup final defeat or two thrown in for good measure).

For the record, Straeuli has presided over Natal and Sharks teams that have lost in three finals - two Currie Cup and one Super 12. Viljoen's record in provincial or regional competitions shows four Currie Cup final appearances and three defeats.

His one season in the Super 12 was a complete disaster and does not compare favourably with Straeuli's miraculous transformation of the Sharks from wooden spoonists in 2000 to finalists in 2001.

Straeuli should not be judged on his record in finals. Both the sides that his team has lost to in his three finals are class acts with a healthy smattering of experienced international players. If success in Currie Cup finals was used as the criterion for choosing the national coach, then Gert Smal, who has won two in two starts, should be taking the Boks to Europe instead of Viljoen.

It would be fairer to judge Straeuli on what he has done for Natal rugby in the just 18 months since he took over. Yes, let's not forget that just 18 months ago, maybe even less, Straeuli was coaching at lowly Border and had had little or no contact with the Natal players he now coaches.

That in such a short space of time he has guided the Natalians to three finals is an indication that he must know his rugby oats. And it needs to be noted too that Natal were not an established team, which to some extent WP have been for the past few seasons, when he took over.

Straeuli took over at a difficult time in Durban as Natal rugby was starting out on a new era after the retirement of former coach Ian McIntosh and a number of long-serving stalwarts.

It takes a while for a team to mature fully and in that sense it may be instructive to repeat here the Natal team that started the 1999 Currie Cup final against the Lions:
Andre Joubert, Shaun Payne, Trevor Halstead, Joe Gillingham, Justin Swart, Clinton van Rensburg, Hentie Martens, Gary Teichmann (captain), Wayne Fyvie, Charl van Rensburg, John Slade, Steve Atherton, Brent Moyle, Mornay Visser, John Smit.

Some of that number played in last Saturday's final against WP, but not one was in the same position that he had occupied three years ago (Charl van Rensburg only came on as a replacement). By contrast WP last week fielded no less than nine players who were regular starters in the Stormers' impressive Super 12 run at the start of 1999.

This needs to be taken into account by those who are now rushing to condemn Straeuli because his young team did not take the extra step from becoming contenders to being champions. Considering the route Natal have followed in 18 months, that next step might not be far away.