Wow, that was quite a Saturday. Air New Zealand Cup final, Home and Away omnibus, ACC3022H studying, Currie Cup Final, Sharks victory, Bok Squad announcement, Earl Rose, Braai.

The ANZ Cup final was as tight as expected with Auteroa’s two best sides slugging it out in Wellington’s best attempt at Spring weather. Westpac Stadium and all 22000 people inside it were treated to a messy but titanic struggle in a constant drizzle. I’m not sure if many South Africans watched the game, but there were some very interesting things to take from it. Firstly was a standout performance by Bubbles Weepu at 10. He controlled the game and very much overshadowed the much hyped youngster Colin Slade. Ross Filipo had a cracker at 4, as did Cory Jane at the back. Those are three All Blacks, guaranteed. Canterbury didn’t look too flash but their rock solid defence and incredible opensider kept the Lions at bay. 7-6 reads like a Guinness Premiership scoreline but I can guarantee you that one came from way down South.

I won’t bore you with H&A talk or the intricacies of planning and designing tests of control within the confines of an audit of an entity’s inventory books so I guess it’s straight to the final.

Firstly, what was up with Supersport’s coverage? Those random quotes that kept popping up? “Whose muse will blow their fuse?”. “Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde?”. “Who will blaze the first phase?”. Crisis. And did my digsmate sprinkle some crack on my Jungle Oats this morning or was that really Johann Muller’s wife and Wikus van Heerden and Fourie du Preez’s dads taking up half of my screen during the game? And the technical breakdown due to the weather. It’s not the Middle Ages here, some rain and a little lightning doesn’t have to send our world into panic.

But as for the game, what a cracker. When Frank missed that penalty I thought I’d slipped through a wormhole and it was May 2007 again. I could just see the whole show unravelling. But thankfully we survived the onslaught and a scrum swivel and got the ball into touch. There were some epic performances from both sides, and some rather worryingly poor ones. Stefan Terblanche was absolutely massive. Francois Steyn also had a hummer, carrying the ball up whenever he was asked to and on defence his channel was plugged up like an old lady who forgets to have her All Bran in the morning. JP Pietersen and Odwa Ndungane are serious contenders for the Springbok wingers, especially with Habana injured/looking severely out of touch. Another unlucky omission from the touring squad, Jean Deysel, had a blinder. He is so strong, and so effective on the charge that I can only wonder why The Moustachioed One wouldn’t want him to play in the slow peatfields of the Isles. Fred Michalak won the battle of the 10s, and it’s really sad that his partnership with the vastly talented Ruan Pienaar won’t get a chance to flourish in ‘09. The Beast was great as usual, and I was heartened by Kankowski’s performance in the tight phases.

For the Bulls, Fourie the Rugby Genius had a very strong game. I thought Zane Kirchner played his best 80 minutes for the Bulls at the back and thoroughly deserves his place in Johan Roets’ boots. Wynand Olivier was very strong in all his bottle-blondeness and as much as it pains me to say, is very unlucky that there is such a plethora of talent in the centers for the Boks as he has finally grown into an international standard outside half. Pierre Spies lived up to my billing of being pure rugby distillate and carried the Bulls pack strongly. The competition between him and Kankowski’s really up the ante and both are playing fantastic rugby. The Bulls’ weak point was at flyhalf where Morne Steyn, much like our beloved bouncers in their Std 7 exams, just didn’t have the answers to the questions posed of him. He kicked well out of hand but the Bulls line moved laterally rather than forward despite the best efforts of Olivier, and that meant they never threatened enough. A fine effort at the breakdowns meant that the Sharks often got scrappy ball and the Bulls were about as physical as we would expect from the tough as nails men from the Jacaranda-blossomed Tshwane Metropole.

But the slew of Cape To Rio bottles lying all over Durban and the thick fog of braai smoke hanging over the Berea will tell you that it was the Banana Boys who finally brought home the bacon. Twelve years is a long time to wait for anything and it’s good to have the Cup back in Durbs.

Now to Piet’s squad. The only reason I can muster up behind Pieter de Villiers’ selection of Rose is that for the last couple weeks he’s only had to make simple decisions like “Front or back seat?” or, “Should it be the rugby club parking lot or the one outside Solly Kramer’s?” and so has forgotten how to make complex calls like deciding on a Bok squad. de Villiers justified his selection by saying that Rose has the X-Factor. Despite what the ladies at last night’s hen party will tell you I’m no sexy Police Officer but if that’s cop code for someone who runs ecstacy then Pieter de Villiers is spot on. If it’s rugby code for someone who likes strapping himself up like some bondage freak then he’s also right. If he was meaning that Earl Rose has the X-Factor that players like Christian Cullen, Frederic Michalak and Carlos Spencer have then he was very, very wrong. Rose is a show pony at best, and a belligerent idiot at worst. His dummy throw-in antics and ridiculous headgear are the laughing stock of the rugby world. Nobody takes him seriously. This isn’t helped by the fact that he defends his channel like Paris Hilton defended her virginity. He played a few good games mid-Currie Cup, and those were against the Valke and the Griquas. Against the big boys he faded into obscurity and haemorrhaged tries. I hate to see what he’ll do when faced with international strength attacks. This selection will do wonders for international drug trade, but certainly won’t do wonders for PdV’s credibility.

And then, typically, the rest of his squad is pretty much spot on. Chiliboy was a bit of a bolter, and Adriaan Strauss may be scratching his blonde head a little. But Ralepelle is a class act at hooker and while he’s played more on his Wii than he has on the rugby field in the last 18 months I think it’s fair to say that if he had been injury-free he’d have been a Bok for a long while now. There are always some unlucky ones. As far as I’m concerned, Peter Grant was the obvious choice for flyhalf but it seems that his injury-ravaged season and Ruan Pienaar’s turn of sublime form did him in. Turbos has had the season of his life and must have been drawing parallels between his career and Percy’s but alas, Snor obviously never saw these lines. Jean Deysel must also be wondering what he has to do to get a run. But the fact is it’s only a 30 man squad and Pieter would have to have been either a very brave man or a very crazy one to have started cutting the core that played throughout this year’s TriNations. Juan Smith might have done with a rest and the same can be said for a few others but PdV is right when he says that there isn’t a lot of time for us to get ready for the Lions tour and so taking the big boys over to get some practice against the Northerners is probably the wisest thing to do.

So, all in all, I guess we can’t be too unhappy with this weekend’s proceedings. There will always be a few howlers in a squad selection and considering that there’s only really one in the Wee Man’s squad for this tour we can’t get too upset. Plus, I’m still bathing in the glow of the Sharks finally overcoming their fear of finals and winning some silverware. A week of exams and related boredom awaits me so I best be off to my books. Enjoy the rest of your Currie Cup weekend folks and try keep it real in the upcoming vacuum of no rugby.

Until next time,
Peace.