Saturday, 7th July 2007 at 7:48 am

One rather boring night in Durban

There was a time, not awfully long ago, when the Sharks clashing with Western Province at the Absa Stadium would have offered the promise of running rugby aplenty, robust forward clashes, and a game well worth setting aside a couple of hours for. Not so Friday night in Durban…

Perhaps it was thoughts of the Vodacom Durban July the following day, coupled with (understandable) fears of what to wear; or maybe the looming Wallaby-Springbok clash that simply overshadowed the preparations for the preparations. More likely, however, was the simple fact that two teams denuded of regular players in key positions simply couldn’t get going, and in the end, Friday night at the Shark Tank couldn’t come to an end soon enough.

Feverpitcher was at the game, and dragged what merit there was from a mundane encounter - AJ Venter celebrating 50 games in the Absa Currie Cup, Brent Russell appearing briefly in the second half in the flyhalf channel (Naas Olivier having elicited memories of Chris Rossouw at his finest), Stefan Terblanche making a triumphant return to South African rugby (which tells you all you need to know about the calibre of the game, really).

But all told, not a splendid night of rugby, both sides missing a flyhalf in the first half, and neither team looking remotely vested of rhythm or flow. Still, if 30-odd players turn up at Greyville Racecourse on Saturday in shimmering linens and bespoke pastel suits, you’ll know where the real focus of the weekend was; and if the Wallabies go down in Sydney, Friday’s rugby will slip from memory very quickly indeed.