Monday, 25th June 2007 at 6:17 pm

Absa Currie Cup up and running

The World Cup will take centre stage this year, and understandably so, but South African rugby will still take a more than passing interest in the competition that was for so long the backbone of the local game. The Vodacom Super 14 might be the more glamorous affair now, but the Absa Currie Cup taps a rich seam of rugby tradition, and the 2007 competition, focus on France notwithstanding, is shaping up for another stellar year.

And it’s because of the World Cup, not despite it, that there’s a certain edge to the domestic rugby championship. Last year’s competition gave us a first real look at a new wave of rugby talent, players like Ryan Kankowski, Robbie Diack, Phillip Burger, Gio Aplon and Waylon Murray making instant names in the absence of rested Springbok stars. More of the same is anticipated with plenty of big names being saved for duty in France, and so while some of the faces won’t be quite so familiar now, they’ll be readily identifiable come the end of the season.

How will that season ends? Not with a shared title, as the rules have now been changed; it could well be the Bulls extending their six month hold on the cup to a full year, if the intensity of pre-season training (and the size of monstrous pack) is anything to go by. The Sharks have also got plenty of talent left despite the missing Springboks - Kankowski, Brad Barritt, Jacques Botes and Warren Britz all remain - and Western Province, pictured here in their opening win over the Lions, could be an outside bet.

And then there’s a Cheetahs side that opened with a 91-3 win over Boland (or 91 for three when bad light stopped play, as a couple of cynics suggested), and are under Naka Drotske for the first time. Whether he adopts the same air traffic control signals as Rassie Erasmus remains to be seen, as does the strength of a side that never really hit top gear consistently in the Super 14; like the other seven sides, however, the Cheetahs have some young talent, several old hands, and the traditional South African drive to win the country’s oldest title. Springboks or not, we’re in for a cracker of an Absa Currie Cup.