Monday, 2nd July 2007 at 6:40 pm

ABSA Currie Cup enters fourth dimension

The nice thing about the Absa Currie Cup is how it lets three of the little guys (in the current format) play with the big boys. Griquas, Boland and the Falcons get to host or visit the big five, providing a gentle run around for the established teams, and the chance to score a famous try in a losing cause for the players in the minnow XV (and perhaps get an autograph afterwards). Or that was the case, until this weekend past…

The All Blacks’ shock upset in Melbourne might, in hindsight, have proved the catalyst for two massive upsets a continent away later on the same day. Feverpitcher had been in Kimberley earlier in the week, and the Griquas crew hadn’t ruled out an upset; belligerent, fighting talk, perhaps, but beating the Bulls. Not a chance… and then they go and do exactly that.

But Kimberley is a tough place to visit - the ground is like concrete, the local fans particularly partisan, and Griquas have a shrewd collection of wisened journeyman and unheralded talent that combined for a famous victory on Saturday night. A shock, then, but nothing like the result in Wellington, particularly when one considers that just a week earlier, Boland had gone down 91-3 to the Cheetahs.

That result underlined the miserable year Boland have endured, the Fidentia scandal hitting them hard; the chances of overcoming Vodacom Western Province looked negligible at best. But with Province having lost a number of players to Jake White’s touring Boks - flyhalf Peter Grant chief amongst them - and mired in administrative uncertainty, perhaps, in retrospect, Province were just a little vulnerable…

…and Boland duly took advantage, the irony being that Isma-eel Dollie, Province’s on-loan flyhalf to Boland, played a key role in his original team’s downfall. Bizarre weekend? Certainly; and with the Lions bouncing back from a loss in Cape Town the previous week to defeat the Sharks at Ellis Park, the Absa Currie Cup is off to quite a start. And to think we’ve only had a fortnight…