A on two continents can’t be fun

Itake this hoorah of South African team’s involvement in Europe’s Pro14 competition with a pinch of salt. Much was made of the involvement of the Cheetahs and the Kings in this Northern Hemisphere tournament after they were made the scapegoats of the SA teams and kicked out of Super Rugby, but sadly they failed to deliver in the opening round.

The Cheetahs got hammered 42-19 by Ulster, while the next day the Kings were humiliated 57-10 by the Scarlets. This is definitely not the kind of window dressing SA rugby needs.

While we heard all the mitigating circumstances surrounding the two Cheetahs yellow cards and the Kings’ rebuilding phase after losing the majority of their squad after Super Rugby, this kind of performance do not enhance SA rugby’s image over there, or anywhere for that matter.

It is not bound to get any better this weekend with the Cheetahs coming up against Munster, and the Kings trying to pick up the pieces against Connacht.

A quick look at the two logs show the Cheetahs lying seventh and stone last in section A and ditto for the Kings in section B.

Good for SA rugby? No sir, not at all.

There has already been a chain reaction in the Cheetahs’ Currie Cup fortunes with their next best players getting a 45-15 whopping by the Sharks in Durban.

So basically the Cheetahs are getting the chop on two fronts and any coach would tell you that it’s difficult to pick up the pieces mentally when a side gets hammered by 40 points-plus ... and that on the same weekend and on two different continents.

And sadly the Cheetahs hammering by Ulster had to be found in former SA players who seemed to have had a field day.

Four former Sharks seemed to have had blinders – wing Louis Ludik, flank Jean Deysel, Man-ofthe-Match No 8 Marcell Coetzee and prop Wiehahn Herbst. Throw a Western Province player in the mix, and former flanker Robbie Diack excelled at lock.

And for those who wondered who the Scarlets were that made the Kings look like a second-rate Vodacom Cup team – especially in the second half, allow me to explain.

The Scarlets are actually Llanelli, that famous club from the Welsh valleys and Welsh international Leigh Halfpenny seemed to have a bonanza day against a South African side. And make no mistake, they see it as a representative SA side.