Set your own goals, Frans

Apart from springing a Cheslin Kolbe or Fred Zeilinga, or reinforcing the idea that Damian de Allende can become a beast, the Currie Cup has done little by way of surprising us.

Western Province, taking the low road as ever, and the Sharks, who have again saved their best rugby for the domestic competition rather than Super rugby, appear to be inexorably headed for a repeat of last year's final.

About the only thing that perked anybody up was Frans Steyn's out-of-the-blue selection by the Sharks for Saturday's semifinal against the Cheetahs.

The strange thing is that just a couple of hours before Brad McLeod-Henderson announced the Springbok inside centre in his starting line-up, a colleague had asked me whatever had happened to Steyn.

Funnier still was that I knew, having spotted him at a Sharks training session two weeks ago while on leave (yes, washed-up rugby hacks attend training sessions when on holiday).

The obvious risks of the decision are the fact that Steyn last played in May, is partnered with Pat Lambie - a player in his first Currie Cup start this year - in the 10 and 12 channel, the stage of the competition, and the opposition (the Cheetahs have a happy knack of upsetting the Sharks in knockout games). Steyn's return might look like a cautionary tale waiting to happen, but it is also an opportunity to get one of the most unfulfilled and interrupted careers back on track.

It's been a curious career, Steyn's. At 26, he has won enough and should have made enough money to retire. Yet there's a nagging suspicion he has underachieved.

Few players will retire having won a World Cup (at 20), a Tri-Nations (2009) and a Currie Cup (2008), and not many can claim to have commanded the kind of pay Steyn did when playing for Racing Metro in France.

But many refuse to forget the wayward conversion that ultimately cost the Sharks the first Super 14 win by a South African team in that epic final against the Bulls in 2007.

That's the essence of Steyn: he mixes the sublime with rank crappiness because of his willingness to have a crack.

It was Steyn who took the ball and got ready for a kick at goal from inside his own half in the World Cup final against England while the hardebaarde (John Smit, Victor Matfield and Percy Montgomery) were debating what to do.

What's more, he nailed the kick.

It was also Steyn who kicked over a penalty from the relative parking lot distance of 60m in the Tri-Nations finale against the All Blacks in Hamilton four years ago, a game the Boks won by three points.

The issue for most people when it comes to Steyn is his lack of consistency. The last time he had something approaching that was in 2007.

It probably also doesn't help that he got things started by winning a World Cup at 20, which implies the rest of his career has been a steady downhill slide as he can only equal that peak but not better it.

Steyn is also finding that being talented means living his life trying to live up to others' expectations of him.

The public expectations of him are to dominate games, stay in shape, string together a consistent season, and generally live up to an immense potential that appears to be untapped, despite the trappings of his success.

The way forward may be for him to set his own goals as to how he wants to see out his career. Then we might see the best of him.