The final round robin stage of this year’s Currie cup competition takes place this weekend. This year’s competition has been the closest it’s been for years, still not knowing who will finish top, bottom or anywhere between. It has been full of injuries, big upsets and a lack of consistency from any team. It has however given younger players a chance to put their hand up and show what they can do at the highest level. That is about to change though, with the Rugby Championship now finished the Springboks will be returning to their respective franchises. The players who have played the whole season and taken their team to the position it’s in will have to step aside. Now some would say that this is fair, playing the strongest players possible, now I partially agree with this as you always want to put out your strongest team. Is it fair for the players who have played the whole year? A player like Siya Ntubeni who has sat on the bench for most of his Stormers career got the chance to start at hooker for Western Province this season and took the opportunity with both hands racking up a few man of the match awards and being one of the stand out players. He will have to step aside for returning Tiaan Liebenberg, this may be the best decision for the team but is it the best decision for the players. He will now revert to the bench and not get as much game time as he’s been getting and not getting the experience he should. The other side of the coin is relegation, if you don’t field your strongest team you might find yourself in the bottom position and fighting for a place to stay in the competition next year. So I guess you have to choose what is best for the overall team and the future of the competition. Most of the players wouldn’t mind as they would know it’s for the best but I’m sure they would still be disappointed in having to step aside. They can be proud however as they played their part and got the team to where it needed to be.
The relegation of the Lions from Super rugby seems to be benefitting the Stormers the most as four players will be signing for the union including Pat Cilliers, Michael Rhodes, Elton Jantjies and Jaco Taute. They may be killing the Lions rugby union by excluding them from Super rugby but they’re definitely boosting the Stormers. This may in fact be even worse for the newly promoted Kings as they will now face even stronger opponents. The Stormers will have an almost 100% Springbok team if they keep all they’re players and they’re fit to play. So much for developing the Kings.
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