A Currie Cup final in December?

‘All stakeholders are on the same page’

SOUTH Africa’s rugby players could be back in training next Monday and playing matches by early August in an expanded Currie Cup that will culminate in a final somewhere around 12 December.

Those are the “ball park” dates that are on the table as rugby’s administrators continue earnest discussions with the South African government.

Sharks chief financial officer Ed Coetzee yesterday said that while “nobody can be 100 percent sure of anything”, the government is doing its best to help rugby resume.

“The government is trying to find a way for us... they have been really positive,” Coetzee said. “If it comes together we are looking at a very exciting, expanded Currie Cup-type competition which will be strength versus strength and have our Springboks in action.”

SA’s answer to the New Zealand’s Super Rugby Aotearoa competition and Australia’s Super Rugby AU (which kicks off this weekend) will go further than the four Super Rugby teams by including the Kings and the Cheetahs as well as Griquas and the Pumas.

“Our turn to play again will come,” Coetzee said after admitting frustration at watching the Kiwi teams go hammer and tongs at each over the last three weeks. “There is a bigger picture for us... all the stakeholders are on the same page and we will get on the field, even if it means playing in a bio bubble (with no fans).”

There have been suggestions that the competition and its teams will all be based in a location far away from SA’s Covid-19 hotspots – a location such as Nelspruit, Potchefstroom or even Kimberley.

In the meantime, SA’s players have been doing their best to be rugby ready so that they can hit the ground running when the game resumes.

Speaking of the Sharks, Coetzee said: “We have spent the last two weeks fitness testing the boys and I am pleased to report that they are in really good shape – most are on the same levels of fitness they were before Super Rugby was halted and a few are even fitter. Huge credit must be given to the conditioning staff for how they have worked with the players in lockdown (they were given bikes and gym equipment), and to the players themselves. They had to log in their sessions and have been really professional.”

During the “transfer window”, where players were allowed to move on as part of a cost-cutting measure implemented by SA Rugby, the Sharks lost just three players in Louis Schreuder, Tyler Paul and Jean Schoeman. This was offset by the gain of Bulls flyhalf Manie Libbock and Sevens star Werner

Kok, who flies into Durban today from Cape Town.

Coetzee said that he is thrilled that the squad has largely remained intact.

“If this was a year ago, when the players were so unhappy, we would have lost all of them – a lot of them had really good offers – so credit must go to the coaching staff for creating an environment in which the players wanted to stay.”