Currie Cup deserves respect

Trevor Stevens

It may have taken 12 weeks for this season’s Currie Cup to click into gear, but the competition is certainly buzzing again as we enter the play-off stages.

Heading into the final round of round-robin matches last weekend, six of the seven teams involved still had a chance to reach the semifinals. In the end, the Cheetahs and the Pumas were the teams to miss out, joining bottom side Griquas on the sidelines. One has to feel for the Cheetahs, who at one stage were on track to host a semifinal, only to miss out altogether by finishing fifth after the Lions hammered them at Ellis Park last Saturday.

So the Sharks host the Bulls in Durban, while the Lions travel to Cape Town in today’s semifinals. The four teams have won 74 titles between them.

But before last weekend’s excitement, it was worrying times for the oldest provincial rugby competition in the world. The competition was flat, with poor attendances and lack of big-name players the order of the day. Due to a demanding fixture schedule and a perceived lack of interest among local rugby fans, rumours have been making their rounds that the competition was on borrowed time.

If organisers and sponsors resist the temptation to ditch the competition, they do need to plan better going forward.

I mean, this season’s Currie Cup couldn’t have got off to a worse start than it did. For the first three weeks the Lions had to dig deep into their reserves as they were still contesting the Super Rugby play-offs.

Don’t even get me started on the poor Cheetahs, who were given a nasty deal. Having been booted out of Super Rugby from next year, late negotiations saw them being included in the northern hemisphere’s Pro14 competition, along with fellow axed outfit the Kings.

How they even competed with two different squads week-in and week-out, is an achievement in its own right, but the Bloemfontein-based franchise felt the heat towards the business end of the competition and ran out of steam.

The Cheetahs will at least be better prepared for next season.

A plan also needs to be made to ensure our players aren’t leaving for abroad after Super Rugby. It is essential to keep our talent within our borders.

The Currie Cup, which dates back to 1891, is in desperate need of powerful performances in this afternoon’s semifinals, and in the final the following week. Such a hallowed competition deserves nothing less.