Boland the brave, the bold and the beautiful

Sanlam Boland were brave, bold and beautiful in beating the Toyota Cheetahs in Wellington on Sunday in the Carling Black Label Currie Cup, writes Mark Keohane.

The Currie Cup requires a new identity in the what, why and who, and Wellington provided a recipe that the marketing giants hopefully recognise, which is to stop trying to sell the competition on the back of a 100-plus year history pre the sport turning professional in 1996, and market the competition about it being about the next generation of Springboks and the current generation of salt of the earth rugger buggers.

Back in the day when the Currie Cup was the premier competition in South Africa, especially during international sporting isolation, it was said that if club rugby was strong in a province then the Currie Cup team was strong.

This weekend was a reminder that if the Currie Cup teams are strong, then the four Vodacom United Rugby Championship clubs should be strong.

The Currie Cup, in its 2025 guise, needs a marketing overall, based on the players involved in the competition, the teams and the very important link the tournament is in the eco-system of South African professional rugby, where it is the entry professional level, en-route to the URC, the Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup and ultimately the Springboks.

We identified Sunday’s match as the premier one of the opening round of the competition. A day earlier Western Province hosted the Bulls at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town. Some tried to sell it as the ultimate South African north versus south rivalry.

Sorry, but not in this guise.

It was a Province Club XV against the professional next best of the Bulls, and the match played out as one of the romantics v the realists. In the professional game the romantics never win, but they always make the heart pound with possibility. WP did that on occasion, but the realists were always in charge.

Elsewhere, the Pumas hammered Griquas, and the Lions sought some comfort from last season’s losing final in demolishing the competition’s defending champion Sharks, albeit a feeder Sharks XV.

Sunday was the bluechip showdown for me, and it did not disappoint.

Wellington, as a host, put on her Sunday weather best and the locals flocked to see the hosts play their first Currie Cup Premier Division match in a decade.

There was a natural, sun infused glow on the afternoon, and the added romance of Hawies Fourie, Boland coach, up against Francois Steyn, Cheetahs, coach. It was a coaching master versus a coaching student as Steyn, among Springbok rugby’s favourite sons, makes his transition to coaching in 2025.

STUDENT V MASTER IN WELLINGTON

Fourie had the early advantage, with his team comfortable on 50 minutes with a two-score advantage. Then came the Cheetahs best quarter and 20-plus unanswered points. The match, at 35-27, was the Cheetahs with a few minutes to play, with the locals lamenting a 27-14 lead in the early stages of the second half.

Then it happened, the miracle that all of the Boland had prayed for, and the most remarkable 15 minutes we are likely to see in the the Currie Cup this season.

The home team scored on 79 minutes, basically sacrificed the conversion to get in a kick receive, and collected the ball on 79 minutes and 45 seconds from the kick-off. They trailed 35-32. They had the ball but they were 80 metres from the Cheetahs try line.

Off they went, and for the next six minutes they kept the ball, went left, went right, went straight, then right and then left, straight again, right and then left. No-one dropped a ball, overran it or made a mistake for the hosts.

The Cheetahs infringed twice to give Boland stronger field position and a line out maul attack. The Cheetahs defence held, held and held.

The clock got to 87 minutes and Boland still had the ball.

Another penalty, 25 metres out and right in front, and the comfort of a 35-all draw and three league points each if the penalty kick was successful. The hosts were insistent: They did not play to draw, but to win and visiting coach Steyn, who believes in that rugby philosophy, would have smiled, if not necessarily agreed it was the day to see this philosophy play out.

Boland said no to the probability of three points and went for the try.

They kicked to the corner, somehow won the line out, went to work again, as if it was the first phase and finished the game, as if it was an on-screen version of how to win.

There was the cross kick, the gather, the initial gallop, the contact, the calm in making the offload and a winger crashing over. Sanlam Boland had won 37-35, and rugby in the Western Cape screamed with delight that the little brother of this province, for so long in a slumber, was once again restless, but not reckless.

Boland is back and it is akin to THE BOLD & BEAUTIFUL, especially when the winning try scorer goes by the name of The Don.

SA RUGBY MAG: ALL THE CURRIE CUP REPORTS