Now this is Currie Cup rugby!

Robbie Fleck is finally watching the Currie Cup again. He looks at the tournament thus far, selects a new loose forward for the Springboks and previews this weekend’s Intervarsity clash between UCT and Stellenbosch.

As I’ve said before on countless occasions – and as many have said before me! – the Currie Cup is not the Currie Cup until the Boks are playing.

Well, I can safely say that the 2008 Currie Cup has finally begun.

The whole feeling around the tournament, the ‘vibe’ as it were, is fantastic and I found myself loving every game last weekend.

The Currie Cup is a fantastic breeding ground, of that there is no doubt, but it is a breeding ground that needs its best players. Playing alongside and against John Smit, Victor Matfield, Juan Smith, Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers and Bryan Habana – that’s how the next tier of Springboks will prepare themselves for the ‘big league’.

Speaking of John Smit, it’s good to see ‘Smittie’ back in the mix for the Sharks, who I see have named a team with 12 Springboks and another three on the bench. That is just stagerring – they will take some stopping this season!

A guy like Smit has not had a lot of rugby this season because of injuries, so it will be great to see him return to fitness – and form – ahead of South Africa’s year-end tour. You need your best players out there playing every week as the selectors need to pick on form when it comes to that overseas tour.

One man in fine form once again is Blue Bulls captain Victor Matfield, who bounced back after some criticism in the media to deliver a world-class performance against the Cheetahs. He was quite simply sublime, dominating the line-outs and performing like a senior World Cup-winning Bok should.

I was, however, very impressed by Cheetahs loose forward Duanne Vermeulen, a man on his own for the Free Staters, who were outplayed in almost every single facet against the Bulls.

There is talk of Vermeulen moving to Cape Town next year, I think it is an excellent signing as he will become an even better player in better company at the Stormers. I would, however, also like to see him in the Springbok squad for SA’s tour to Europe – he won’t be out of place in the Bok mix and a taste of international action will also do his game the world of good.

Suggestions have been made in the media that the Boks were looking to play midweek games on their tour, which is a great idea in my opinion.

I was part of that talented midweek team in 1998, on my first Bok tour, a side that boasted the likes of Selborne Boome, Bob Skinstad, Corné Krige and André Vos – to name just a few – and a lot of us gained some incredible experience before stepping up to play Test rugby the following year.

It’s a tough ask expecting young guys just to simply step up into a Test team and perform at, say, Twickenham after a long hard season, but it would be great to blood them into the Springbok set-up by playing them in some midweek fixtures first.

One guy who will not require being eased into action is Lions centre Jaque Fourie, who makes his return to the starting line-up this weekend. As luck may have it, he will oppose Adrian Jacobs, the man who has taken his place in the Springbok line-up this season.

Fourie has become something of a forgotten man in SA Rugby, after playing a star role in the Boks’ World Cup triumph last year. Jacobs, meanwhile, has taken his chances in 2008.

I was quite critical of Jacobs earlier this year when Peter de Villiers selected him in the No.13 shirt, but he certainly showed that he has few equals in this country when it comes to attacking prowess.

He is a nice, balanced runner and he always asks questions of the opposition defence. He performed on defence, too, where I thought he would be found wanting, although, to be fair, I don’t think he was tested enough in that aspect of his game during the Tri-Nations.

Fourie, however, will provide Jacobs with that test. Few centres in the world run the lines that Fourie does. He might not have Jacobs’s silky skills and ability to beat a man, but if his inside centre puts him into space on any given day, I wouldn’t back many guys in world rugby to take him down. Defence is hardly an issue for Fourie either; in fact, I would rate him as the best defensive outside centre in the world.

I’m expecting a tough day out for Jacobs, even though Fourie is not 100% match fit, but it’s great to see all this midfield competition in South Africa once again. A match-up of this nature won’t do either player any harm!

In ‘my day’, I had to compete with the likes of Pieter Muller, Brendan Venter, Japie Mulder and André Snyman for a Springbok place, whilst in the first few years of Jake White’s tenure, guys like De We Barry, Marius Joubert, Jean de Villiers and Fourie were all putting their hands up.

Last year, however, before the World Cup, there seemed to be a shortage of decent centres in the country, with just Jean and Fourie the real contenders. Since then, however, we have seen young Frans Steyn develop into a world-class No.12 (and a World Cup winner) and now Jacobs has also thrown his name into the hat. All in all, it’s a great problem for the Bok coach to have.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to watch the Lions-Sharks game live on Saturday – thank you, in advance, my loyal PVR! – because I will be in Stellenbosch for the Intervarsity match between the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch.

It should be a cracking day out at Coetzenberg and I’m sure plenty of students will turn out at the Danie Craven Stadium and make a day of it – like only students can… Hopefully, we will reward our loyal Ikey fans with some silverware this season, it’s the least we can do for them.

It’s been quite a long year for myself, Dobbo and the rest of the coaches and the players at UCT, but believe me when I tell you, we have more than enough gas in the tank for his last hurrah against the old enemy from ‘down the road’!

Of course, we are also determined to honour our late friend and teammate Monte Taljaard, who lost his life in a car accident just over a week ago… It’s not our only motivation, but having that 16th man – in Monte – out there will be a massive inspiration to the guys when they take to the field.

This will be our fourth match of the season against the Maties and it’s currently 2-1 in their favour. We know, full well, that it could easily have been 3-0 in our favour, starting with that last-gasp loss to them in the FNB Varsity Cup Final back in April.

Psychologically, Saturday’s match is an important one for us – we seem to lose to Maties in the last minute quite often, with the same happening in previous league match. Also, we play them first-up in next year’s Varsity Cup and we would not want to give them an unnecessary boost for that game.

Of course, adding extra spice to Saturday’s game is the fact that Maties need to win this match to secure yet another WP Super League title. Our aim is simple, however, we want to win this match to make 2008 an even more memorable season. Deciding the fate of the league is not even featuring in our thinking.

I know Maties coach Chean Roux (an old WP teammate of mine) would be happy with a draw and four tries, as they need just three points to win the Super League title, but all we will offer them is four tries and a loss by less then seven points. Sorry Chean, but that’s the best I can at this stage!

Catch you next week,
Robbie

* Email Fleckie at rugby365@365digital.co.za with any comments.

* Fleckie’s ‘Last Word’ will appear weekly on rugby365.com and iafrica.com, so log on next week for more exclusive views from him!