Saturday’s Carling Currie Cup semi-final between the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV and
Vodacom Blue Bulls at Loftus in Pretoria has the makings of an epic battle typical of clashes between the two sides.
Who can forget that historic 1990 Currie Cup victory when Craig Jamieson led Natal to Currie Cup triumph, defying history books, fans, foes and experts when they defeated Northern Transvaal 18-12.
Since then, many a battle has taken place between the two proud unions, and once more they find themselves going head-to-head in South Africa’s premier domestic rugby competition.
Looking at the grand scheme of things with the Vodacom United Rugby Championship kicking off immediately after the conclusion of the Currie Cup, head coach John Plumtree explained how a semi-final adds to the team’s preparation as well as acknowledging the spirit and history of the local competition.
“Ultimately, if you look at the bigger picture, it’s a pre-season game; for a lot of players, it’s only their second game, they’ve all had a bit of a run, but this is a really solid, physical hit-out against a quality team. That’s exactly what we want at this time of the year.
“I think it’s important to honour the Currie Cup as well, it has a massive history, it’s been a big part of my coaching career and as much as we know the URC and Champions Cup are a priority for this union, we have to honour the Currie Cup.
“We’re doing that by taking this week deadly serious. For me – and all the coaches – we’ll be hoping we don’t pick up any injuries. It’s not the end of the season, it’s just the start. We already have a few injuries and we don’t want to add to that list.”
A surprise was naming Ethan Hooker at wing, but there are multiple reasons for this, the coach explained.
“He hasn’t played wing before, it’s something I’d like to experiment with but it’s not like it’s going to be a positional change for him, his future is in the midfield with the Hollywoodbets Sharks. But I’d like to play him on the wing for this game and see how it goes.
“He’s big, he’s fast, he’s fine under the high ball and he’s a really good rugby player. He’s a good communicator, he’s really fit so his work rate will be really good. With Andre Esterhuizen playing and Ethan around the same spots – they’re both big men – it’s just an opportunity for me to see him go in that position. The other big thing is that my depth is tested, there are a lot of injuries to my outside backs, so I want to see how this goes and how it can help the team.”
It doesn’t get a whole lot bigger in domestic rugby to travel to Loftus to take on the Blue Bulls and Plumtree acknowledged that excitement levels and the intensity will go up a few levels.
“We expect a dry evening, the speed of the game will go up a couple of notches because we had a wet day here in Durban, and the ball in play time will probably also be higher at Loftus.
“It’s about how well we execute on the day, that will determine the result. You won’t see us wither and die.
“The physicality is always there and we are going to get tested by the Bulls at some of the areas we know we need to be better at as a team.
“Although it’s perfect preparation for us going into the URC season, right now we’re talking about honouring the Currie Cup which has been our focus this week.
“We had some ex-players down at training this week to wish the players well and that was great, so we’ve prepared well and looking forward to the game.”
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