It is the Stormers v La Rochelle Champions Cup match this weekend that is getting all the hype, but for rugby intrigue, don’t discount the Challenge Cup derby in Bloemfontein between the Cheetahs and the Sharks.
I reckon it is going to be a classic clash between teams differing in motivation, but equally hungry for the win.
Outside of the Free State, the Cheetahs have always been every South African’s ‘second’ team, but even more so of late because of their shoddy ejection from the PRO14 competition that became the United Rugby Championship.
And even when they were given a conciliatory pass into the Challenge Cup last year, it was on the condition that their opposition didn’t have to travel to Bloemfontein for matches.
And so the Cheetahs battle on, winning Currie Cups now and again while bleeding top players to rival unions, and struggling to attract players because they are not at the top table that is the URC.
The Sharks have found the URC tough going this season as they look to rebuild in John Plumtree’s second stint at Kings Park.
They lost five matches in a row before an explosive 69-14 demolition of the Dragons in Durban, only to get smashed 44-10 the next week by the Bulls to suggest that the victory over the Welsh was a false dawn.
Plumtree said as much, admitting that he had been hoodwinked into thinking his team was further down the line in terms of rebuilding the team culture he wants.
That brings us to the Sharks’ impressive 45-5 defeat of Pau last week. The dubious strength of the French team notwithstanding, it was a convincing performance.
But the drum Plumtree would be beating all week is the need to back it up by beating the Cheetahs, as one swallow doesn’t make a summer.
So, it will be interesting to see how much desperation for victory a Sharks team resplendent with World Cup winners exhibits in Bloemfontein at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon.
With respect to the good citizens of the City of Roses, the Free State Stadium is not the Stade de France, and the spectator numbers will be measured in the hundreds, not tens of thousands.
If the Sharks lose a match they ought to win, given the gulf in player pedigree between the sides, it will approximate a disaster.
All the more so because their next match is an away URC derby against the Stormers (December 30), the team the Sharks would most like to beat but have not managed to do so for some time.
This irks the New York owners who were turned away by the Stormers and bought the Sharks instead.
Confidence is currently a fragile commodity at the Shark Tank, and they need heaps of it before travelling to the Cape Town Stadium.
Coach Hawies Fourie’s Cheetahs, meanwhile, continue to toil away, doing the best they can with what they have got, but you get the impression that they are getting restless.
“We are hungrier for something bigger,” captain Victor Sekekete said this week.
“We have tasted the Currie Cup, but everyone is looking forward to growing the Cheetahs overseas.
“Hopefully something happens again and we have a good season. The game against the Sharks is a way for us to show what we are made of.”
The Sharks have been warned.
IOL Sport