Bresler feeds off memory of Sharks’
PLAYING in high-profile games like a European final is one of the main reasons Greig Laidlaw chose to move to the English Premiership. The irony that on Friday he will get his chance only for the opposition to be the very club he left behind in order to achieve it is certainly not lost on the Scotland captain.
Speaking yesterday ahead of the Challenge Cup final against Edinburgh at Twickenham Stoop, Laidlaw admitted: “This is the kind of game which attracted me to move to Gloucester. Ironically it is against Edinburgh which is a bit funny. But listen, regardless of what the result is on Friday, it has been the right decision for me to come to Gloucester. I’ve really enjoyed my first season down here.”
Laidlaw spent seven years with Edinburgh from 2007 to last summer and led the club to their previous best result in Europe – the Heineken Cup semifinal of 2012. That was a landmark achievement for a Scottish team but, come Friday evening, the 29-year-old scrum-half will be hellbent on preventing the historic feat of a European trophy heading back north to his homeland.
“If we do win it will be a bit of a strange feeling,” admitted Laidlaw. “But that’s the world of professional sport. I want to win things just as much as the next man and would be delighted if we do. It is a big occasion for the professional game in Scotland and that’s another reason why Edinburgh will be so pumped up. Glasgow are sitting top of the Pro12 and Edinburgh will be keen to try and win a trophy first before they do. I know how much it will mean to them but I’ll be putting my emotion to one side.”
That pragmatic instinct stretches to the Jedburgh man’s nearest and dearest, too, and Laidlaw laughed: “My family will certainly be supporting Gloucester that’s for sure. We’re Borders people anyway.”
The big talking point leading up to the game will be Laidlaw’s personal duel with the young pretender to the national No 9 jersey, Sam Hidalgo-clyne.
The 21-year-old deputised off the bench for the skipper in all five games of this year’s Six Nations whitewash and, since returning to Edinburgh colours, has posted a series of outstanding performances. It has prompted serious suggestions that, when Scotland open their World Cup campaign at Laidlaw’s new Kingsholm home in September, the skipper could well have been deposed from the national starting XV.
“People will talk about the match-up,” conceded Laidlaw. “But you always have rivals at this level. There’s always been other players there. Sam has played really well and he will have ambitions to play for Scotland, as do I. He has come in and taken his opportunity. He is certainly pushing me and that can only be a good thing for my game. I feel I’ve played really well in Europe myself this year and I want to emulate that once again on Friday.
“It [going head to head with a national rival] can be a chance to prove a point. They’re good for people to watch and for us to play in. There has been a lot of noise made about it but I’ll concentrate on my game and playing my part for Gloucester.”
While the buzz may be around the battle of the No 9s, Laidlaw, like any good scrumhalf, knows what happens immediately in front of him will determine a lot.
“Our scrum has been good but Edinburgh have a strong pack too,” he said. “They’ve grown in confidence and have a very experienced front row in Al Dickinson, Ross Ford and WP Neland and a couple of big lumps in Anton Bresler and Ben Toolis in the second row. That forward battle will be key in the game.”
Laidlaw admitted he has been doing a spot of perfectly understandable informing on his former team-mates. “Yes, I’ve tried a little bit to help out our coaching staff,” he confessed. “I know their individual players better than people down here so that’s been handy to point out a few specifics and flag up things they do in attack or what certain individuals might do.”
While the thought of reuniting with his former team in a game of such magnitude so soon after leaving would have seemed fanciful even a few months ago, Laidlaw insists he is not taken aback by Edinburgh’s purple patch. He said: “No, I wouldn’t say I’m surprised that Edinburgh have done so well of late because I know the calibre of player they have there and how [coach] Alan Solomons drives them on.” PLAYING in a major final will be a new experience for many of Edinburgh’s players on Friday but South African lock Anton Bresler is one who can draw on the memories of three showpiece occasions.
The former Natal Shark has performed in two Currie Cup finals in his homeland and also the Super Rugby final of 2012. Of this trio it is the first – the 2010 Currie Cup final – which is most vivid in the 27-year-old’s mind as it was the only in which he ended up on the winning side, even though he was only on the pitch for the last few minutes as a late replacement.
“My first final was the Currie Cup final in Durban in 2010 for the Sharks against Western Province [a 30-10 win],” explained Bresler. “We had [now Edinburgh team-mate] Andries Strauss at inside centre and
“My family will be supporting Gloucester. We’re Borders people” Greig Laidlaw
there was Bismarck du Plessis, Alistair Hargreaves… I only got the last minutes off the bench but it was a great occasion for a young boy to play against Schalk Brits, John de Villiers, some good players. For a South African rugby player that was the ultimate. I heard some of the Springbok players before the match saying this Currie Cup final meant more to them than the Super Rugby final. It meant so much.”
It is difficult to overstate the importance of the Currie Cup in the sporting landscape of South Africa. Named after the Scottish shipowner Sir Donald Currie, who transported the first touring British Isles team to South Africa in 1891, it is the country’s premier domestic competition.
A possible parallel in terms of iconic significance could be the FA Cup but, while English football’s top knockout competition has faded into the shadows of the Premier League and Champions League of late, the Currie Cup retains its standing despite technically being a rung below the intersouthern Hemisphere Super Rugby tournament.
Bresler also tasted Super final action in 2012 as a member of the Sharks side which lost 37-6 to Waikato Chiefs in Hamilton, New Zealand in the same year that he also lost the 2012 Currie Cup final to Western Province. “We got a bit of a hammering but it was a good experience,” Bresler says of the Super final.
In terms of global prestige,
“The key to winning a big game is to stay patient and keep grinding, grinding” Anton Bresler