Years of one team dominating Currie Cup are over

It was a glum group of Western Province coaches and officials who greeted journalists at the annual end-of-season lunch at Newlands this week.

"Welcome guys, but I'll be honest, I didn't expect to be hosting this lunch so early. I thought it would take place about two weeks from now," said a solemn Rob Wagner, the WP managing director.

In comparison with the past two years, when the lunch had followed successes in the Currie Cup final, it was indeed a sombre occasion. WP, after winning two in a row, had put a lot of pressure on themselves to make it a hat-trick of victories.

That was the aim for the season - three Cup wins in a row - and at the start of it, there was talk of chasing the five-in-a-row dominance of the WP side of the 1980s.

While that may sound arrogant, a look at the quality of players available to WP and the pedigree of the youngsters coming through may make it appear less so. But I have news for WP and any other South African provincial side that might consider emulating the sort of Currie Cup dominance enjoyed by Northern Transvaal in the late 1970s and Western Province from 1982 through to 1986.

That may have been possible in the isolation era, when the players just had the Currie Cup to play for, but it ain't gonna happen now that South Africa is back in the international fold. Not with all the myriad of different titles and competitions that the top players have to play for during the course of the season.

A glance back at the Currie Cup winners since 1990 may bear me out on this one. In the past 12 years, no team has won the Cup three years in a row. The Lions (then Transvaal) claimed consecutive titles in 1993 and 1994, Natal did the trick in 1995/1996 and WP in 2000/2001.

If you look at some of the players that played for those unions and what they had available in the years when they relinquished their titles, then these statistics become quite surprising.

For instance, the Transvaal team that won the competition in 1993 and 1994 dominated Francois Pienaar's World Cup winning Springbok squad in 1995. No less than 14 Transvaal players were part of the 30-man Bok squad.

How then could they possibly fail in their attempt to win the Currie Cup later that same year? An easy one to answer - the World Cup effort took so much out of them that they were simply out on their feet.

Instead it was Natal, who had far fewer Bok representatives, who were able to rebuild. Someone like their new skipper, Gary Teichmann, was not part of the World Cup effort, neither were Henry Honiball, John Allan, Jeremy Thomson, Cabous van der Westhuizen, Kevin Putt, Wayne Fyvie and several other of the stalwarts who guided them to the Currie Cup title.

It could be argued that several of those mentioned were no more than journeymen, but at least they were not tired. And when I talk of tired, I am not just referring to physical fatigue, but to mental/psychological fatigue.

The previous year, Transvaal won the Currie Cup, but that they beat Free State in the final to do it would be surprising to those who remember that Ian McIntosh's Springbok squad that toured New Zealand that year featured a large group of Natal players.

Where were the Pieter Muller's, Mark Andrews' and Andre Joubert's when the Currie Cup was decided? They were simply out on their feet.

With the benefit of hindsight, it should not be overly surprising that the team that looked the most tired and jaded and carried the most injuries in this Currie Cup year was also the one that has consistently provided the most Springboks in the past three years.

Skipper Corne Krige may have summed it all up at the press conference after his team's Ellis Park defeat last week - "Some of us have not had a proper off-season in over three years".

Playing Tri-Nations and being involved in the home international season that precedes it before going into the Currie Cup does place a huge strain both on bodies and minds. The first time it happens maybe the player can deal with it, the second time it happens it becomes more difficult and then the third time it all just becomes too much.

Francois Pienaar's Transvaalers discovered this in 1995, and maybe Gary Teichmann's Natalians discovered it in 1997, by which time they were providing the core of the Springbok team that played against the British Lions and in the Tri-Nations.

There is no doubt that Natal were the strongest team in the country in 1997. Their Super 12 results, where they were the only South African side to make the semifinals, proved it. Yet by the end of the season they were so tired that they conceded the Currie Cup to a young Western Province team.

Significantly, that WP team of 1997 had not even played in the Super 12. Instead of the high pressured games you get in the southern hemisphere showpiece competition, they quietly built themselves up for the Currie Cup season playing in the low profile Bankfin Shield.

The new coach Harry Viljoen was able to experiment with his selections and in the time and space allowed none of the players were overly taxed, either mentally or physically.

The following year Natal should also have been recognised as the top team. After all, they had the key members of the Springbok Tri-Nations winning team playing for them - Teichmann, Honiball, Pieter Muller, Mark Andrews, as well as others like Adrian Garvey, Ollie le Roux etc.

They were also again the top local team in the Super 12, which explained why they provided most of the Tri-Nations squad. The cycle was however again to conspire against them. After a good start in the Currie Cup, they floundered towards the end and it was a very tired team that squandered a 17-3 lead in the second half of their semi-final against the Blue Bulls.

A look at the South African Super 12 success stories in more recent years reveals a similar trend, with the top SA team failing to convert that early form into a Currie Cup triumph.

In 1999, for instance, the Stormers, which was the WP team in disguise, played a blinder of a Super 12 season, finishing second on the log to become the first South African team to host a semi-final. Where did that year's WP team end in the Currie Cup? No better than 11th (admittedly the World Cup had taken several of their players).

In 2000 the Cats were the top SA team, but the Lions and Free State came nowhere in the Currie Cup. Last year the Sharks made the Super 12 final, but at one stage were in danger of not making the Currie Cup top eight after successive defeats to the Falcons and Free State at a stage of the season where they played very tired rugby.

That the Sharks still made the Currie Cup final, where they lost, can probably be attributed to the then Bok coach Harry Viljoen's failure to reward Super 12 form with Bok caps.

There were still several key Natal players though who suffered in the international season for the fact that they went straight from their Super 12 final against the Brumbies into a tough national training camp in Plettenberg Bay.

I well remember standing next to the then Sharks coach Rudolf Straeuli watching the Boks train in Plett one day. Straeuli was sure of one thing only - "These guys are out on their feet".

Compare the hectic schedule of today with that of the WP side that won the Currie Cup five years in a row in the 1980s. They played 10 Currie Cup matches and maybe a couple of Lion Cup fixtures. Test matches were few and far between and there was no Super 12.

It was all so simple. The players had one master, WP, and the whole season was geared towards reaching the Currie Cup final and winning it.

In conclusion, maybe I should take the liberty of redrawing the Currie Cup record books of the post-isolation era to reflect what would probably have happened had it not been for Super 12 or Springbok commitments.

The strongest team is the one I think should have won the Currie Cup that year if it was all they were playing for.

Winner -- Strongest team
1992 Natal -- Natal
1993: Transvaal -- Transvaal
1994: Transvaal -- Transvaal (Natal should have made final)
1995: Natal -- Transvaal
1996: Natal -- Natal
1997: WP -- Natal
1998: Blue Bulls -- Natal
1999: Lions -- WP
2000: WP -- WP
2001: WP -- WP

Note that had the Currie Cup remained the only major rugby competition, Natal, WP and Lions (Transvaal) would all have taken turns to notch a ha-ttrick of consecutive Currie Cup titles.

Of course, this is based on subjective opinion, as is my contention that a full-strength, injury free and fresh WP team would at the very least have made the Cup final this year.