Phiwe's stark warning: 'We have to be incredibly careful'
The Bulls, Sharks and Western Province have treated the Currie Cup as a development competition and none of them made the play-offs.
With one round of league action remaining, the Lions – who fielded the bulk of their United Rugby Championship in the past weekend’s Round Six action – are the only remaining ‘international’ franchise.
The Bulls, Sharks and Western Province will treat the final round of the Currie Cup as URC warm-up matches.
They have nothing else to play for and nothing to lose.
Getting game time into their URC players, four weeks out from the start of the Trans-Hemisphere competition, is the only value in it for them.
Bulls Currie Cup coach Phiwe Nomlomo admitted there is no wrong or right answer to the frequently asked question about the relevance of the Currie Cup in the modern game.
“It is a matter of opinion,” he said about the suggestion that the once proud competition is being turned into a ‘development’ tournament by the country’s international franchises.
“The game is changing in South Africa,” he told @rugby365com, adding: “We [the Bulls] have a 19-year-old who was writing [his matric] exams last year this time and today [Saturday] he was starting against a Lions URC side.
“With where the game is going, we have to be incredibly careful because it is played throughout the year, and the number of players in each union hasn’t really increased.”
Nomlomo said the boardroom big cheeses will have to make a call on what direction to take the game in.
(WATCH as Bulls Currie Cup coach Phiwe Nomlomo discusses the ‘relevance’ of the Currie Cup in the modern game…..)
He added that it is a give-or-take situation about turning the Currie Cup into a fully-fledged development tournament.
“You don’t want to throw guys into a slaughterhouse.
“They will not learn much if all they do is get a beating every weekend.
“If there is an improvement within the process and we keep revising it every week, then there is scope for that [becoming a development tournament].”
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