Currie Cup final — good luck to both teams!

When the first overseas team to tour South Africa in 1891 arrived they carried with them a particularly precious bit of cargo. They had a golden cup given to the British Isles squad by Sir Donald Currie, owner of Union-Castle Lines, the shipping company that transported them to the southern tip of Africa. The gold trophy was donated by Sir Donald in 1891, before the arrival of the touring British Isles team. Sir Donald was clear with his instructions — hand this trophy over to the team in South Africa that gives you the best game and after a spirited display, Griqualand West became the first ever holders of the Currie Cup. To this day the trophy remains the holy grail of South African rugby. They then donated the trophy to the rugby board, and it became the prize for the Currie Cup competition, but before this in 1889 the SA Rugby board at the time decided that a larger competition was a good idea, the participating unions were Western Province, Griqualand West, Transvaal and Eastern Province. The first tournament was held in Kimberley and was won by Western Province. As a prize they received a silver cup donated by the South African Rugby Board, now displayed at the SA Rugby Museum in Cape Town.

Without disrespecting the tradition of the Currie Cup, it stumbled along until around 1968 when Northern Transvaal beat Transvaal 16 – 3 heralding a period of overall dominance from the men in Pretoria winning the Currie Cup 16 times, let me record that fly-half supremo Naas Botha played a large role in this dominance. Tomorrow another edition, another chapter of Currie Cup history will be complete — a new champion will be crowned the best rugby team in South Africa. The Currie Cup is widely regarded as the most prestigious domestic competition of its kind. I do believe that if anything good came out of sports isolation is that we developed a real provincial passion and the Currie Cup was all we had in SA. Since re-admission to international rugby we have had to come to grips with balancing international duties with provincial duties, something I believe we are only getting right now.

When the Gauteng-based Lions (formerly Transvaal) take on the Sharks (formerly Natal) in the 2011 South African rugby showpiece it might assist you to know and appreciate the history that comes with winning this competition

Team	Number of wins	Notes	Most recent
Western Province	32	Four shared	2001
Northern Transvaal/Blue Bulls	23	Four shared	2009
Transvaal/Gauteng Lions/Golden Lions	9	One shared	1999
Natal Sharks	6		2010
Orange Free State/Free State Cheetahs	4	One shared	2007
Griqualand West/Griquas	3		1970
Border/Border Bulldogs	2	Two shared	1934

As can be seen the Sharks are the defending champions, 2010 winners taking on a team that has not seen silverware for a very long time, 1999, being the last time that Ellis Park played host to any credible trophy. At some point I almost feel that purely from a pity point of view the Lions need to win this competition … but I am sure that the Sharks and their brilliant supporters will disagree. Within the broader history of this amazing tournament lies history between the Lions and the Sharks, they have played in finals since 1990:

1992	Natal	14 – 13	Transvaal	Ellis Park, Johannesburg
1993	Transvaal	21 – 15	Natal	Kings Park Stadium, Durban
1996	Natal Sharks	33 – 15	Golden Lions3	Ellis Park, Johannesburg
1999	Golden Lions	32 – 9	Natal Sharks	Kings Park Stadium, Durban
1999	Golden Lions	32 – 9	Natal Sharks	Kings Park Stadium, Durban

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Since 1990 Natal / The Sharks have played in 11 finals winning, including tomorrow, five of them of which three were away from their Durban base — shows that the Sharks are comfortable winning away from home in very big matches. If history is a factor, 1992, the last time a final was contested by these two teams at Ellis Park, was won by the Natal unit by a massive 33-15.

The Lions have played in nine finals including tomorrow winning only three of them up to now all away from the Joburg-based stadium. They have lost two finals at Ellis Park.

With such history immersed in the fans and players respect and passion for this coveted title the Currie Cup final is poised to be an absolute cracker of a game. Who would have ever predicted that in 2011 we would see Willem Alberts and Wikus van Heerden facing off against each other in none other than the number four jumper — lock! They key positions in each team are so well-matched and as we have become accustomed finals rugby is about percentages and the purist will tell you that history plays no role. Tomorrow is about tomorrow and that means it will be about which team gets the plan as close to right as possible and the team who wants the title more.

My feelings you ask? I would like to see the Lions win, I do believe that they would be just and deserving winners based on a great season but the Sharks into their second week of the Boks being back, settling in and re-acquainting themselves with their provincial game plan and a 59-3 win against the same Lions two weeks previously might be three points stronger than the young Lions on the day. But finals rugby is a very strange animal and anything is possible — my call though is Sharks by three to six on the day. One thing I can tell you for sure, a coach named John will win the title.

Enjoy it and good luck to both teams! I cannot wait.