It is little more than a few days before the start of the 2010 Currie Cup season where the defending champion Blue Bulls will be determined to retain their trophy and win the domestic ***le for the 24th time.
One of the world's oldest rugby tournaments will once again see the likes of the Blue Bulls, Cheetahs, Lions, Griquas, Sharks and Western Province fight it out for the historic silverware, while the Leopards and the newly-promoted Pumas complete the line-up.
This year marks the 71st season in the competition since it started way back in 1889, and the competition will be contested from July 9 through to October 30.
Blue Bulls
After seeing off the Cheetahs 36-24 in the 2009 final, the men in blue will have high hopes of repeating last year's double by winning both the Super 14 and Currie Cup.
However they will have to do so without no less than eleven Springboks - a tough ask indeed, considering the cavalry will only be returning come semi-final time... if the Bulls make it that far.
The Blue Bulls' depth was severely tested last time out, and they had to rely heavily on the return of their top Boks to scrape through to the play-offs on points differential - which meant the end of the road for Griquas.
This year, coach Frans Ludeke can't be relying on his Boks to save the Blue Bulls' bacon once again thanks to SARU's decision to manage the workload of 20 contracted players (seven of them Bulls) over a four-week period in preparation for the Rugby World Cup campaign.
The Bulls will also be without their most experienced Super Rugby player Pedrie Wannenburg (Ulster) and scrum-half Heine Adams (Bordeaux) who have decided to pursue careers abroad. The rock-solid Tiger Mangweni has moved to Eastern Province, while injuries to Akona Ndungane, John Mametsa, Gerhard van den Heever and Jaco Pretorius have impacted on the defending champions' depth.
Fourie du Preez's surgery has also hit the Blue Bulls hard - while his likely replacement at scrum-half, Francois Hougaard, has been called to do the business in the Springbok side for the upcoming Tri-Nations. On the plus side, the Blue Bulls get lock Wilhelm Steenkamp back from his loan to the Sharks, and impressive forward Juandre Kruger is also back after a stint at Northampton.
Cheetahs
The Currie Cup - unlike the Super Rugby competition - has proved to be a happy hunting ground for the Free Staters in recent campaigns and last year's runners-up will be aiming to go one better in 2010.
Lately, the Bloemfontein-based outfit's record over the past six years points to them as a team not to be taken lightly. They have played in five of the last six Currie Cup finals since 2004, won two and shared the trophy once.
Having lost their opening four games in last year's Currie Cup, the Cheetahs bounced back to claw their way into the semi-finals where they upset the Sharks in Durban to set up another meeting with the Bulls in the final - fighting back from 24-0 down, reducing the deficit to just six points and then eventually going down 36-24.
Naka Drotske's team will now be looking to continue their impressive run from the last few games of the Super 14 where they managed to stop a losing streak and finished off with some fine form. However, there was a stage in the Super 14 where they had more Griquas backs in their squad than Free State back-line players, and the loss of Sarel Pretorius, Naas Olivier, Riaan Viljoen and Bjorn Basson will be a big loss.
The Cheetahs are also still without two key injured players in the form of number eight Frans Viljoen and hooker Adriaan Strauss, but have only lost prop CJ van der Linde to the Bok squad.
Their loose forwards though, in particular, make for impressive reading: Hendro Scholtz, Heinrich Brüssow, Johan Wessels, Juan Smith, Francois Uys, Philip van der Walt, Ashley Johnson, Kabamba Floors and Boom Prinsloo are all in the Currie Cup group.
The Cheetahs have also been using former Free State and England full-back Michael Horak, who has been appointed as a consultant and has this week been concentrating on the defence structure of the men in orange.
Last year's finalists will also want to build their season on ball retention and more phase play. They gave notice that they are on their way to achieving this in a clinical 45-7 warm-up win against Border in East London over the weekend, where Free State stuck to their structures and ran in seven tries.
Griquas
Close but cigar - that's the best way to describe Griquas' run last year after knocking over a few big guns before missing out on a place in the last four by points differential.
The surprise package in the 2009 Currie Cup led the standings for the most part of the competition after Round One. Needing just two points to go through to the semi-finals in the last of the round robin matches, they lost to the Sharks in Kimberley and only succeeded in achieving a single bonus point - going down 45-30.
Some would say they were robbed after losing to Bok-laden teams during the latter part of the tournament, but they get another bite at the cherry this year and will have gained a few more fans from their brave outing in 2009. Griquas gave unequivocal notice that they will be a factor again after a superb season last year when they overran SWD Eagles 50-12 in Mossel Bay over the weekend.
Eight tries by a confident team with a smattering of new blood blending well with the veterans like Springboks Riaan Viljoen and Bjorn Basson and other stalwarts, Naas Olivier and Ryno Barnes, showed they are ready for the tough competition.
Griquas have, however, lost wing Trompie Nontshinga, prop Ruaan du Preez, wing Gavin Passens as well as locks Brendan Snyman and Jacques Lombard. On the other hand they have gained former Bulls lock Hendrik Roodt from the Waratahs, wing Zaheer Rylands from Western Province, Maties flank and captain Wesley Wilkins, former Pumas and Lions Super 14 fly-half Rudy Voigt as well as scrum-halves Warren Malgas and Marnus Hugo.
Lions
The Lions will be out to begin this Currie Cup season where they left off last year - on a winning note.
One again, 2009 wasn't a memorable year for the Lions who lost more games than they won but ended off on a high note by beating Western Province and in the process, knocked them off the top of the log.
Johannesburg's once mighty pride will be coached by Western Force and former All Black coach John Mitchell, who has been handed the difficult task of rebuilding a Lions legacy - albeit temporarily - from scratch. Lions director of coaching, Dick Muir, will be with the Springboks during the Tri-Nations in his capacity as back-line coach, and will return to the squad during the final four to six weeks of the Currie Cup.
Former Springbok lock Johan Ackermann will be the forward coach while former All Blacks fly-half Carlos Spencer, who will act as player-coach, will look after the back-line - and the idea is that he will do more coaching than playing as the Lions look to blood young players for the future.
The former Currie Cup champions of yester-year showed in this year's Super 14 that they are a team that are in desperate need of new ideas and perhaps Mitchell is the man to point the lost cubs in the right direction.
The Lions were at times impressive in scoring seven tries in their 45-29 warm-up win over the Boland Cavaliers in Wellington, with the score an impressive 45-10 only 12 minutes from the end when replacements by the Lions lead to a loss of structure and three Boland tries.
The win was sorely needed as a morale booster after the 13 losses from 13 in the Super 14 competition and although there is still much work to be done, they will be confident about their opening away match against the Leopards.
The biggest signing for the Lions in the off-season was former Sharks centre Waylon Murray on a two-year contract, while prop Heinke van der Merwe, once hailed as South Africa's answer to the Bok front row, has decided to spend his future with Irish club Leinster.
TBC...
One of the world's oldest rugby tournaments will once again see the likes of the Blue Bulls, Cheetahs, Lions, Griquas, Sharks and Western Province fight it out for the historic silverware, while the Leopards and the newly-promoted Pumas complete the line-up.
This year marks the 71st season in the competition since it started way back in 1889, and the competition will be contested from July 9 through to October 30.
Blue Bulls
After seeing off the Cheetahs 36-24 in the 2009 final, the men in blue will have high hopes of repeating last year's double by winning both the Super 14 and Currie Cup.
However they will have to do so without no less than eleven Springboks - a tough ask indeed, considering the cavalry will only be returning come semi-final time... if the Bulls make it that far.
The Blue Bulls' depth was severely tested last time out, and they had to rely heavily on the return of their top Boks to scrape through to the play-offs on points differential - which meant the end of the road for Griquas.
This year, coach Frans Ludeke can't be relying on his Boks to save the Blue Bulls' bacon once again thanks to SARU's decision to manage the workload of 20 contracted players (seven of them Bulls) over a four-week period in preparation for the Rugby World Cup campaign.
The Bulls will also be without their most experienced Super Rugby player Pedrie Wannenburg (Ulster) and scrum-half Heine Adams (Bordeaux) who have decided to pursue careers abroad. The rock-solid Tiger Mangweni has moved to Eastern Province, while injuries to Akona Ndungane, John Mametsa, Gerhard van den Heever and Jaco Pretorius have impacted on the defending champions' depth.
Fourie du Preez's surgery has also hit the Blue Bulls hard - while his likely replacement at scrum-half, Francois Hougaard, has been called to do the business in the Springbok side for the upcoming Tri-Nations. On the plus side, the Blue Bulls get lock Wilhelm Steenkamp back from his loan to the Sharks, and impressive forward Juandre Kruger is also back after a stint at Northampton.
Cheetahs
The Currie Cup - unlike the Super Rugby competition - has proved to be a happy hunting ground for the Free Staters in recent campaigns and last year's runners-up will be aiming to go one better in 2010.
Lately, the Bloemfontein-based outfit's record over the past six years points to them as a team not to be taken lightly. They have played in five of the last six Currie Cup finals since 2004, won two and shared the trophy once.
Having lost their opening four games in last year's Currie Cup, the Cheetahs bounced back to claw their way into the semi-finals where they upset the Sharks in Durban to set up another meeting with the Bulls in the final - fighting back from 24-0 down, reducing the deficit to just six points and then eventually going down 36-24.
Naka Drotske's team will now be looking to continue their impressive run from the last few games of the Super 14 where they managed to stop a losing streak and finished off with some fine form. However, there was a stage in the Super 14 where they had more Griquas backs in their squad than Free State back-line players, and the loss of Sarel Pretorius, Naas Olivier, Riaan Viljoen and Bjorn Basson will be a big loss.
The Cheetahs are also still without two key injured players in the form of number eight Frans Viljoen and hooker Adriaan Strauss, but have only lost prop CJ van der Linde to the Bok squad.
Their loose forwards though, in particular, make for impressive reading: Hendro Scholtz, Heinrich Brüssow, Johan Wessels, Juan Smith, Francois Uys, Philip van der Walt, Ashley Johnson, Kabamba Floors and Boom Prinsloo are all in the Currie Cup group.
The Cheetahs have also been using former Free State and England full-back Michael Horak, who has been appointed as a consultant and has this week been concentrating on the defence structure of the men in orange.
Last year's finalists will also want to build their season on ball retention and more phase play. They gave notice that they are on their way to achieving this in a clinical 45-7 warm-up win against Border in East London over the weekend, where Free State stuck to their structures and ran in seven tries.
Griquas
Close but cigar - that's the best way to describe Griquas' run last year after knocking over a few big guns before missing out on a place in the last four by points differential.
The surprise package in the 2009 Currie Cup led the standings for the most part of the competition after Round One. Needing just two points to go through to the semi-finals in the last of the round robin matches, they lost to the Sharks in Kimberley and only succeeded in achieving a single bonus point - going down 45-30.
Some would say they were robbed after losing to Bok-laden teams during the latter part of the tournament, but they get another bite at the cherry this year and will have gained a few more fans from their brave outing in 2009. Griquas gave unequivocal notice that they will be a factor again after a superb season last year when they overran SWD Eagles 50-12 in Mossel Bay over the weekend.
Eight tries by a confident team with a smattering of new blood blending well with the veterans like Springboks Riaan Viljoen and Bjorn Basson and other stalwarts, Naas Olivier and Ryno Barnes, showed they are ready for the tough competition.
Griquas have, however, lost wing Trompie Nontshinga, prop Ruaan du Preez, wing Gavin Passens as well as locks Brendan Snyman and Jacques Lombard. On the other hand they have gained former Bulls lock Hendrik Roodt from the Waratahs, wing Zaheer Rylands from Western Province, Maties flank and captain Wesley Wilkins, former Pumas and Lions Super 14 fly-half Rudy Voigt as well as scrum-halves Warren Malgas and Marnus Hugo.
Lions
The Lions will be out to begin this Currie Cup season where they left off last year - on a winning note.
One again, 2009 wasn't a memorable year for the Lions who lost more games than they won but ended off on a high note by beating Western Province and in the process, knocked them off the top of the log.
Johannesburg's once mighty pride will be coached by Western Force and former All Black coach John Mitchell, who has been handed the difficult task of rebuilding a Lions legacy - albeit temporarily - from scratch. Lions director of coaching, Dick Muir, will be with the Springboks during the Tri-Nations in his capacity as back-line coach, and will return to the squad during the final four to six weeks of the Currie Cup.
Former Springbok lock Johan Ackermann will be the forward coach while former All Blacks fly-half Carlos Spencer, who will act as player-coach, will look after the back-line - and the idea is that he will do more coaching than playing as the Lions look to blood young players for the future.
The former Currie Cup champions of yester-year showed in this year's Super 14 that they are a team that are in desperate need of new ideas and perhaps Mitchell is the man to point the lost cubs in the right direction.
The Lions were at times impressive in scoring seven tries in their 45-29 warm-up win over the Boland Cavaliers in Wellington, with the score an impressive 45-10 only 12 minutes from the end when replacements by the Lions lead to a loss of structure and three Boland tries.
The win was sorely needed as a morale booster after the 13 losses from 13 in the Super 14 competition and although there is still much work to be done, they will be confident about their opening away match against the Leopards.
The biggest signing for the Lions in the off-season was former Sharks centre Waylon Murray on a two-year contract, while prop Heinke van der Merwe, once hailed as South Africa's answer to the Bok front row, has decided to spend his future with Irish club Leinster.
TBC...
