A 'Greek God' for 80 minutes

I owe one of my colleagues R3200 in unpaid sports bets. It sounds like a lot of money but it's a small price to pay (one day) for having unshakeable belief in the underdog.

I could be ashamed by my tardiness, or indeed my obvious lack of expertise in sports predictions, but my excuse is that I have a propensity to go for the bigger odds in bets.

Putting money on the favourite has never made sense to me. The point is that you watch sport in the hope that it throws you a surprise, and once in a while that attitude gets rewarded.

Western Province winning the Currie Cup final against the Sharks at the weekend was a classic case of the sports fan, myself included, being patted on the back for wading through hours of sports coverage for just that kind of result.

There was something nice about Allister Coetzee getting a trophy instead of unwarranted abuse, Eben Etzebeth coming of age as an enforcer, and even Jean de Villiers winning the Currie Cup in absentia.

But little Demetri Catrakilis epitomised Saturday's theme: that the sun does shine on a dog's backside every now and then.

"Catra-killed us", as the Sharks have probably come to know him, has rightly never been mentioned in dispatches about Springbok flyhalves.

At 1.79m and 86kg, he hardly answers to Wikipedia's nickname for him - "The Greek God" - but he certainly has the right philosophy when it comes to confronting Rudyard Kipling's two imposters.

Despite getting his kicks over as usual, Catrakilis had a nervous start to the final, nearly getting cut in half by a Beast Mtawarira tackle and throwing an intercept pass to JP Pietersen, who thwarted a certain try in the process.

But the first hint that he is made of sterner stuff than his foppish looks suggest was his getting up from the Beast's tackle and availing himself to take a pass two phases later. He then made the switch pass that ended up in Juan de Jongh's sensational try.

The 23-year-old then kept his head by nailing the penalties that made sure his team was always within striking distance during a period in which referee Jaco Peyper's officiating appeared to be kind to the Sharks.

Then came the deciding moments, like the two dropped-goals that all but decided the game - one with his right foot and the other a woer-woer effort with his other foot.

When it was time to put the shoulder to the grindstone, he was there to capitalise on Joe Pietersen's good hit on Charl McLeod by being in place to force Pat Lambie to knock on with a try-saving tackle of his own.

While he was at it, he grabbed 20 of his team's points for good measure.

Catrakilis's performance was a master class in remembering what all players should in a final: that there will be times when momentum deserts you, but you have to cash in when the force is with you.

I wouldn't bet on my sneaking suspicion he may well never have a day like Saturday again, but for 80 minutes Catrakilis rewarded us for watching so much sport.

PS: The big talking point of the rugby week is supposed to be Saru's Transformation Indaba. Until provinces stop paying players partly on the basis of colour, and coaches stop selecting white players over black players for habitual, rather than rugby, reasons, I'm not wasting any more column inches on our so-called transformation.