We’ve seen a lot of sporting team rises in the last decade which has threatened to upset the status quo.
In football, for example, Manchester City began threatening the English Premier League status quo of Manchester United’s year in and year out dominance.
This is when City’s UAE billionaire owners began pumping handsome amounts of money to acquire the players to wrestle power away from United.
City, who earned themselves the ‘Noisy Neighbours’ tag from the red side of Manchester, managed to put their words to action as they completed the mission of ending United’s dominance when they won the league during the 2011-12 season on the last day of the season.
It was their first title since 1968.
With Manchester United known as the best team in England for years, and in Manchester to a lesser scale, the millions that City owners were pumping into the club finally paid off.
Even though United managed to win back the title the following year, The Citizens are today recognised as the best team in their town: Manchester.
Which brings me to East Rand United (ERU) in Boksburg.
TW Boksburg Rugby Club has been widely known for many years as the team to beat in Boksburg because they had earned that reputation and partly because of a lack of a rival that would wrestle away their grip.
Until the gradual rise of one East Rand United from Reiger Park.
Let me digress. The TW Boksburg Rugby Club, otherwise known as the Owls, and the ERU rivalry, share a lot of similarities like the football one in Manchester.
Manchester United are older than City; the Red Devils have a richer heritage and thus a bigger stadium and following. Just looking at the above, one can understand why they have been the team in Manchester.
But the Red Devils are, at least for now, no longer the best team in Manchester.
TW Boksburg is older than ERU, has a richer heritage and thus a bigger home stadium and following (in Boksburg). One can understand why they have been the team in Boksburg to beat.
But the Owls, are, at least for now, no longer the best team in Boksburg.
The rise of City and ERU were due to one major reason which happens to make the world go round: money.
With ERU, it was more about player passion and good coaching than money in recent years.
The Reiger Park outfit immediately made an impression when they were promoted to the Peregrine League in 2016 following a historic Merlin League triumph under the tutelage of respected coach Derrick Sampson.
United is based in Reiger Park, which is about a kilometre from the Owls’ home of Prince George Park.
At the time of their promotion, they believed they could beat everyone and so their rivalry with the Owls was inevitable.
The highly-anticipated derby that year lived up to its bill with the brave and determined ERU falling short 19-12 against a more experienced and fitter Owls outfit.
It was more of the same in the return derby at PG Park where a lack of composure saw ERU let themselves down before Owls fullback Jason Jonker broke Reiger Park hearts with a last-gasp try to clinch the match for his side, full-time score Owls 21-20 ERU.
Despite clinching the double over the then big league novices and sparing their blushes, the Owls knew they had just been in a helluva 160 minutes of rugby and that ERU just might be a threat after all.
This was confirmed the following year when, following a draw at a soaked Reiger Park Sports Grounds, ERU clinched a win at PG Park to claim the town’s bragging rights.
Fast forward to this year and the old status quo hasn’t only changed in both Manchester and Boksburg, but it’s fast becoming a norm.
Manchester City is the 2017-18 Premier League champions – they did this in style finishing with 100 points, 19 clear of second-placed United and also breaking Chelsea’s previous total points record of 95.
ERU just completed the double over the Owls: first running them over 48-24 at PG Park before a 63-27 rout at the Reiger Park Sports Grounds – completing a 115-51 aggregate.
My 2018 East Rand United, TW Boksburg combined team:
1 André Myburgh (ERU), 2 Shaun de Wet (ERU), 3 Gary Woolls (BOKS), 4 Bakkies Bakumeni (ERU), 5 Willem Botes (BOKS), 6 Jonathan Botha (ERU), 7 Fanie van Staden (ERU) (c), 8 Calvin Jantjies (ERU); 9 Tiaan Ramat (ERU), 10 Adriaan van der Nest (BOKS), 11 Leon Potgieter (ERU), 12 David Woolls (BOKS), 13 Waylon Thompson (ERU), 14 Jackie Jonkers (ERU), 15 Cameron Rooi (ERU)
Coach: Stephan Nel (ERU) – @SabeloBoksburg
