Open season for any takers at this stage of Challenge

IN THE same way that Naas Botha said the Currie Cup wasn’t won in May, it would appear the SuperSport Rugby Challenge isn’t either.

Three rounds are clearly too soon to read anything into the standings in the three pools, but there are already a few surprise results. As things stand there are five unbeaten teams and three sides yet to record a win.

Most surprising among the unbeaten sides are the SWD Eagles, who couldn’t buy a win in last year’s competition – they won none of their games while on a 21-game losing streak – but have emerged as one of the possible threats to DHL Western Province’s dominance, after opening with wins over the Eastern Province Elephants and the Border Bulldogs.

The most ominous-looking teams are the iCollege Pumas and last year’s finalists, the Tafel Lager Griquas. By beating the Vodacom Blue Bulls and the Xerox Golden Lions – supposedly the two strongest teams in their group – in succession in their first two games, the Pumas are quietly establishing themselves as the team to beat in the North Pool.

Griquas, who have the free-scoring Enver A hat-trick a game keeps the “doctor away” and Brandt in tow, have picked up where they left off in the Central Pool last season, with the Toyota Free State team having started much better than last year by winning both their games.

Strangely for a team that has yet to lose a game in this competition (they are now on a 14-game winning streak in the Rugby Challenge), Western Province look like a team playing as much for their unbeaten run as they are wins, if their last-minute 23-21 victory over the much improved Boland Cavaliers is anything to go by.

At the other side of the table, the poor blighters who can’t club together to buy a win, the Leopards, are strangely lumped with the Windhoek Draught Welwitschias – the perennial cellar dwellers – and the embattled Border Bulldogs.

How Jonathan Mokwena’s charges, who are traditionally a plucky and difficult team to beat, ended up here is not clear. Just three weeks ago most of their squad were contesting the Varsity Cup final but they’ve been second best, sometimes third best (their 14-80 capitulation against Griquas), in their three games.

After winning their first game of the tournament last year, against the Cavaliers, Border might also be bemused about their showings thus far. But few teams start a tournament with their union facing liquidation.

As for the Welwitschias, one imagines they’re lying in wait for their annual ambush where one of the teams in the North Pool make the mistake of turning up in Windhoek high on complacency, low on intensity (ask the Hino Valke). —