The sponsors may not think the Currie Cup matters any more but in South African rugby, South Africa’s oldest and grandest domestic competition is still a fan favourite and it remains a competition the players want to win.
Comparisons of the Currie Cup of old, in the amateur era and pre-Super Rugby and now the United Rugby Championship, are redundant. Rugby, globally and in South Africa, is a different environment and the Currie Cup is not an international inter-club competition. It can’t rank one in terms of professional importance, but it will always rank in terms of prestige and nostalgia. It will also rank as an escalator to bigger rewards, such as URC contracts or approaches from clubs in the US, Japan, UK, Ireland, France, Italy and other parts of Europe where South African rugby players are sought-after investments.
South African rugby, as a custodian, has battled to find a rightful place in the calendar year for the Currie Cup, which has also meant uncertainty because of different system options over recent years. But it is a domestic competition that has again been given the necessary respect by way of a double round 14 match per team schedule.
The top four make the semifinals, with league placings ensuring home ground advantage for the semifinal and final. The Pumas are the champions, having stunned more established provinces last season en route to a thrilling win in the final against Griquas in Kimberley. Last season’s final was huge, in spectator attendance and in general interest among South African rugby supporters.
Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse, among the most seasoned South African coaches, described the result as his greatest achievement and the most special rugby afternoon of his career. The Pumas players and supporters concurred. It was a final worthy of the very best of them.
... the more traditional provincial powerhouses did not take kindly to not having a presence at the big dance
Expect more of the same this season because the more traditional provincial powerhouses did not take kindly to not having a presence at the big dance and already there has been a shift in focus at Western Province, while Bulls URC coach and director of rugby Jake White is also working closely with the Currie Cup coaches.
The URC champion Stormers head coach John Dobson and his coaching support staff will also take charge of the WP Currie Cup campaign as they look to build greater depth for the URC squad and ensure consistency in playing style, be it for the Stormers or WP.
Dobson, who has won the Currie Cup as a coach, has the utmost respect for the competition’s history and believes that it remains among the most important competitions, if for different reasons pre professionalism.
It is the breeding ground of South Africa’s next generation of superstars, and it is also a competition that will allow for mentoring from experienced veterans, as much as it will be about the emergence of the very best schoolboy talent.
It was in the Currie Cup that grizzly openside veteran Deon Fourie made his return to South African rugby after eight seasons in France. A few months later Fourie was playing in the URC, winning the URC and making his Test debut against Wales in Bloemfontein. He did it at an age that made him the oldest Springbok on debut.
Scotland’s international power and pace wing duo of Duhan van der Merwe and Kyle Steyn also started in the Currie Cup for the Blue Bulls and Griquas respectively. It was in the fabled competition where they laid a marker and overseas offers followed and so did international call-ups for their adopted new home.
Whenever I speak to established Springboks and URC players they always speak glowingly of the Currie Cup and of having won a final or their desire to play in a final and win it. The treasured Cup has lost none of its allure for this generation of player, even though the status of the competition naturally has been downgraded. But this downgraded status does not mean it is a downgraded competition, especially not for the players and provincial coaches.
That a sponsor hasn’t seized the moment and aligned with the competition, given it is the playground of tomorrow’s Springboks, bemuses me in a marketing world when most brands are desperate to get the attention of the next generation of player and supporter.
PS: For the record, SA Rugby Magazine’s poll of more than 10,000 votes has the Lions to win the competition.
• Mark Keohane is the founder of keo.co.za, a multiple award-winning sports writer and the digital content director at Habari Media. Twitter: @mark_keohane
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