Nothing is certain in this world

Two major events of the past week made me think about the ancient cliche “don’t count your chickens before they are hatched”. First of all there was the Currie Cup final in Durban last weekend where Western Province defied the odds to stop the Sharks dead in their tracks at their home fortress.

Secondly, there was the huge confidence-booster of South Africa being named as the preferred host of the 2023 World Cup ruled by an independent analytic group, edging out France and Ireland.

But to get back to the initial topic of the Sharks not taking full advantage of their home ground, I have a friend who proclaimed after the semifinals: “I told you at the beginning of the campaign that the Sharks would win the Currie Cup.”

Now at best I would say that was jumping the gun even while admitting that few people outside of Cape Town would have predicted a Province win. But down the years, the Capetonians always had a knack of upsetting the applecart in Durban.

For the entire campaign I haven’t seen the Sharks pack being outplayed so heavily. It was really an eye-opener while the big positive was the birth of the next Springbok superstar in tighthead Wilco Louw.

But at the same time, Province loosehead JC Janse van Rensburg was a machine at the Lions some four years ago as captain and it’s an injustice that he doesn’t have a Bok blazer in his cupboard.

Now moving the topic to South Africa possibly hosting the next World Cup in six years time, it’s only realistic for us to get our hopes up that after 28 years the World Cup could return to our shores.

But we must also realise that while World Rugby’s board named SA as the preferred candidate, it will come down to a voting process by the council on November 15.

And while Saru’s CEO Jurie Roux said that the voting process will probably be guided by the board’s reference, it’s by no means a foregone conclusion.

The recent #BlackMonday protests against farm murders as well as the retrenchment of Bulls team manager Tim Dlulane would have been noted across our borders and will be used as ammunition against our bid.

The remaining seven Sanzaar and Six Nations countries will get three votes each, amounting to 21 of the 39 and SA need to win 20 or more.

Twelve days and counting.