25 years of Super Rugby: 1997 was SA’s year of shooting themselves in the foot

New year, same champion.

There was a sigh of resignation from various quarters of the Super Rugby fraternity in 1997 when the irrepressible Blues claimed a 23-7 win in the final over the Brumbies in Auckland.

The power at coach Graham Henry’s disposal was, frankly, scary.

In fact, 14 of his starting XV were or would eventually become All Blacks, with No 4 lock Leo Lafaiali’i also having been an international for Samoa.

In essence, the opposition where playing against a Test team weekly and the results were predictable.

The Blues went unbeaten the whole campaign, their only blip being at Loftus on the opening weekend, where they somehow allowed the Blue Bulls (re-branded from Northern Transvaal) to snatch a thrilling 40-all draw.

Almost fittingly, that game featured a hat-trick of tries for the underrated and underappreciated Adriaan Richter, the Springboks’ surprising joint leading try-scorer in the 1995 World Cup.

The Blues shrugged off that result and went on a 12-match winning streak, with only the Brumbies remotely looking like a team capable of toppling Zinzan Brooke and co.

With the benefit of hindsight, the gulf between the top two sides and the rest was embarrassingly wide.

The Hurricanes were the only other side bar the finalists to record more than five wins during the season, meaning the overall log had a distinctly mediocre look to it.

Somehow, the Sharks managed to finish fourth, predominantly because they drew two matches, but both they and the Gauteng Lions (formerly Transvaal) were guilty of wasting excellent starts to the season.

The Free State Cheetahs, making a first appearance after they finished higher than Western Province in the previous years’, impressed at stages, while the Bulls were nothing more than spoilers for their fellow countrymen in a year where internal politics plagued the union.

Final top four log: Blues (50 points – Played 11, Won 10, Drawn 1); Brumbies (41 points – Played 11, Won 8, Lost 3); Hurricanes (34 points – Played 11, Won 6, Lost 5); Natal Sharks (30 points – Played 11, Won 5, Lost 4, Drawn 2)

Top point scorer: Gavin Lawless (Sharks) 170 – 6 tries, 25 conversions, 30 penalties

Top try scorer: Joe Roff (Brumbies) 14

Top SA try scorer: Joos Joubert (Sharks) 7

How the SA campaign unfolded…

Natal Sharks (Coached by Ian McIntosh)

King’s Park witnessed the most entertaining and bizarre start to any home campaign after the Sharks galloped to a 75-43 victory over the Highlanders.

The match saw fullback Gavin Lawless, who joined from Transvaal in the off-season, claim the record for the most individual points in a Super Rugby match, an incredible 50 – made up of four tries, nine conversions and four penalties. That record still hasn’t been eclipsed and probably won’t be either.

With coach Ian McIntosh seemingly prioritising his attack, there were some gaping holes in defence and the Natalians ironically would concede the second most points during the season.

But a run of five wins from their opening six matches would prove enough to squeeze them into the semis. The downside was that their poor form later on earned them a punishing reunion with the Blues, who strode to a 55-36 triumph. That scoreline summed up the Sharks’ season.

Gauteng Lions (Coached by Ray Mordt)

After being saddled with a draw from hell in 1996, the Lions looked a team transformed when they were handed the luxury of five successive home games once they negotiated an opening weekend in Bloemfontein.

With Springboks Gavin Johnson and Kobus Wiese in compelling form, they won their first four matches and were on the verge of an early semifinal spot when the Hurricanes came to Ellis Park.

That match was carelessly lost 35-37 and a baffling, deflating 16-all draw with the Bulls meant the Lions needed a result overseas to progress.

But the mental scars of the inaugural season’s travels saw them collapse in Australasia. The situation wasn’t helped by a growing revolt against coaches Ray Mordt and Tito Lupini on that trip.

A comprehensive 42-8 drubbing of the Sharks in their final game of the season was nothing more than a source of frustration – they missed out on the semis by two log points, or by simply reversing the Bulls draw.

Free State Cheetahs (Coached by Peet Kleynhans)

Cheery and exciting, the un-fancied Free State thoroughly enjoyed their first taste of Super Rugby.

They boasted only a few prominent personalities – such as the brilliant flank duo of Rassie Erasmus and Andre Venter – but made up for a lack of proven class by adopting a fine team spirit.

That doesn’t mean they didn’t make a couple of statements during the campaign.

They notably beat the Sharks 45-40 in Bloem and recorded a sterling 49-18 win in their first ever overseas game against the Highlanders.

But they lacked the legs to turn something of promise into substance.

Blue Bulls (Coached by Kitch Christie, then John Williams)

Rugby was not a priority at Loftus in 1997.

Instead, political battles and a nasty player revolt meant the Bulls were distracted most of the time.

Perhaps the best illustration of that was the treatment of head coach Kitch Christie.

Appointed at the behest of his former Springbok stars, the World Cup winner had to withdraw from the side’s overseas tour in week three after his lymphatic cancer flared up again.

Christie eventually had to be hospitalised and, astonishingly, Bulls president Hentie Serfontein went to visit him and fired him on the spot.

A real WTF moment.

The Bulls did manage three draws, which meant they would’ve made the semis had they won those games … but nobody truly believed that logic.