Time for ship’s arrival

This is a column about ships coming in. Let’s not digress, for the reference is to a ship that has been steaming across the Indian Ocean towards Durban for a couple of years now.

But while it almost touched land in 2007, a tidal flow by the name of Bryan Habana swept it way back out to sea, before last year it returned to within sight of land, only to again find itself floundering as it got swept away on the outgoing tide.

The tidal wave that stopped the ship last year came in the form of Wycliffe Paulu (why do South African rugby teams always look vulnerable against teams with big No8s?) and the Waratahs. And for my money the Sharks’ biggest obstacle to their first Super 14 title will again be the Waratahs.

They smashed Johann Muller’s men twice last year, both times in Sydney – once in the league stages, and again in the semifinal. There was something disturbing about the way both of those games turned out, for they seemed to suggest that Australian rugby was becoming more physical.

If you were brutally honest, however, you would have to admit that the Sharks, in the last game under their previous coach Dick Muir, botched the play-off. Selecting Tongan Epi Tiaone on the flank when he had been off the field for seven weeks didn’t make sense then, and it doesn’t make sense now.

Not that there was anything too fundamentally wrong with the idea of bringing a big fellow into a loose-trio which too often last season consisted of two small fellows in Keegan Daniel and Jacques Botes packing down on alternative sides of the scrum. That combination might work when you have Mark Andrews at lock, not when you have a combination of Steven Sykes, Albert van den Berg and Johann Muller.

My hunch is that John Plumtree, who now has a Wahl Bartmann clone named Jean Deysel wearing the No7, will get those selections right this year, and the way the Sharks have been slowly brewing since Muir first took charge in 2005 bears some similarity to the Proteas under Graeme Smith and Mickey Arthur. Yes, if you want evidence that most ships eventually do come in if you have the talent and then mix in a bit of selection consistency, then the cricketers showed it Down Under.

Come to think of it so did Jake White’s Springboks in France in 2007. And 2007 should be mentioned for I sense my conviction that this will be South Africa’s year has prompted some to wonder whether I became a citizen of Cloud Cuckooland over the Christmas break.

It is simple really, and I don’t have to be too long-winded about it. Firstly, any conception that South Africans automatically have to be the whipping boys in this competition pre-dates 2007, when there were two teams in the final, and the Bulls became the first local winner.

Of the three Sanzar nations, South Africa are the one that has been least hit by departures for overseas since the World Cup. This past season there were even fewer than there normally are, probably because of the lure of the British Lions tour.

The Bulls were caught out last year because they had a new coach, half their players were suffering World Cup hang-over and the other half were negotiating with Toulon, and in the opening weeks they played as if they thought ELVs were tiny people who live in forests and mate with Pixies.

I expect them to be formidable again this year. They may even win the Super 14 again. The Stormers are also good enough, provided their locks and Jean de Villiers don’t get injured, and they have a coach who is sometimes too clever for his own good.

But it is the Sharks who have been brewing to this point, and they traversed an important barrier in last year’s Currie Cup final. The brilliant young players who were 20 or 21 in 2006 and 2007 are now nearing maturity at 24. My money says the Durban team, at the very least, will be in the final again.

And because I was pretty on the spot last year – go check the archives – and no-one acknowledged it, I don’t want anyone sending me nasty emails if I am wrong. For if you do, I shall respond with a question: “Where they hell were you in 2008?”

My finishing order:
Sharks
Waratahs
Crusaders
Hurricanes
Stormers
Bulls
Chiefs
Blues
Lions
Brumbies
Western Force
Cheetahs
Reds
Highlanders