Stean Pienaar of Golden Lions and Joseph Dweba of Toyota Cheetahs during the Currie Cup, Final match between Toyota Free State XV and Xerox Golden Lions XV at Toyota Stadium on September 07, 2019 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Photo by Frikkie Kapp/Gallo Images)
If you’re a Lions fan, you’re probably quite grumpy … and understandably so.
For most of Saturday’s Currie Cup final, the team looked out of sorts against the formidable Free State Cheetahs.
There were many mistakes from the Gauteng boys – but that should not take anything away from the Cheetahs who, playing in front of a packed Bloemfontein stadium, made home advantage count and made the Lions pay for their errors.
For Lions fans, the eventual three-point margin (they went down 31-28) will hurt even more because it shows that, even when not firing on all cylinders, the Lions can be the country’s best.
It was wonderful to see open running rugby – although some of that may have been due to less than effective tackling, especially on the part of the Lions.
Even though it was a Cup final, there was a commitment to fling the ball around and take chances. Wonderful entertainment.
But it’s not about who won or lost. It’s about the game of rugby. And, on the evidence both teams served up on Saturday, South African rugby (at least the version played inland) is alive and well and kicking, although we could probably do with a little less of that…
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