No vibe and no hype: How Covid killed the Currie Cup

Something was definitely lacking this week and I couldn’t precisely lay my hands on it.

And I’m certainly not one to be dragged into the Eskom or political mess and lack of municipal maintenance warfare or lack of proper planning issues.

Then it struck me – it has more to do with the obvious lack of hype and the general electric vibe surrounding the Currie Cup semifinals taking place in Pretoria and Cape Town today.

The lack of atmosphere obviously has to do with the on-going absence of fans at the stadiums and the general depression and anxiety caused by the Covid pandemic.

National Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus earlier this week eluded to the fact that the Currie Cup semifinalists should be saluted for how they have stood tall amidst the challenges of the virus.

While the standard of the Currie Cup has come under fire by former coaches due to the lack of creativity and sparkling play, Erasmus said the general public were misinformed simply because they didn’t have all the information at hand.

Erasmus said the general member of the public is not aware of the duress that teams are under, having limited training time due to Covid measures and the subsequent waiting time awaiting results.

Often teams were not allowed to train scrums or mauls or general play due to testing on Tuesdays, which meant they couldn’t engage in any kind of contact on Mondays and even further in the week.

No team has gone unscathed and at least two of the semifinal coaches in Bulls mentor Jake White and Sharks coach Sean Everitt picked up Covid themselves, while Erasmus himself had to battle Covid along with his family members.

While the integrity of the competition has also come under fire, someone like Springbok prop Steven Kitshoff has twice had to be withdrawn due to Covid protocol, along with his World Cup and provincial team-mate Frans Malherbe.

Both the Sharks matches against Province in the Super Rugby Unlocked stage and the Currie Cup had to be called off due to Covid protocol in the Sharks frontrow.

At that time accusations were thrown around that the guilty team should be punished, like the time when the Cheetahs had to travel in vain to Ellis Park and just had to make a U-turn.

Erasmus said however the challenges had been immense and pointed out that of 650 professional players in the country, most are still under a 50% salary cut as they were under the initial lockdown last year.

So … who wants to be a professional player?

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