I note with great pleasure that Craig Burden will make his 50th Currie Cup appearance for the Sharks on Saturday. While it seems as though poor old “Bruce” has been biding his time on the fringes for years now, it really is very pleasing to see him reach such an important milestone for the team he loves – and has shown great loyalty to despite sometimes extreme provocation!
I decided to have a look at the caps totals of the current Currie Cup squad, though, just to have a look at who else might be approaching a milestone of some sort. We all know, of course, that this year’s team is very light on experience – which is a good thing, because it means that we’re really backing our own young players to come good and develop further for the team. I wonder how many of us realise, though, exactly how few caps we have spread around?
I’ve had a look at the total number of Currie Cup caps for the Sharks – that immediately should ring alarm bells, of course, because it means that players like Marius Joubert, Fred Michalak , Louis Ludik, Ross Skeate and Meyer Bosman aren’t going to come across as being as “experienced” as they undoubtedly are – but the results are nonetheless quite interesting. The top three are, of course, quite easy to predict, with Stef Terblanche (89), Jacques Botes (87) and Keegan Daniel (70) stalwarts of far too many Currie Cup campaigns to count, together with a good 300 or so Super Rugby caps between them as well. Burden, on 49 at the time of writing, slots in fourth, after which it gets interesting.
If I had to offer a prize for guessing which member of the squad had the fifth-highest number of Currie Cup caps (for the Sharks), I wonder how many people (without checking) would have given Wiehahn Herbst as the answer? Worsie’s 17 appearances put him just slightly ahead of Eugene van Staden (16), Ludik (15) and Michalak (13), with Kyle Cooper (10) the only other player to have accumulated Sharks caps in the double figures.
In Joubert, Bosman, Skeate, Ludik and van Staden, though, the Sharks do have a core of players who have amassed somewhere between 200 and 300 Currie Cup caps for other provinces through the years and as the season progresses, it will be vital for these men, new though they may be to the Sharks team, to bring that experience to bear in a team full of eager youngsters with but a handful of caps between them.
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some figures on how many provincial games these guys have played for other provinces…
Ross Skeate played 55 times for WP
Eugene van Staden played 12 times for EP and 47 times for Griquas
Jacques-Louis Potgieter played 55 times for the Blue Bulls and 26 for the Cheetahs
Marius Joubert 37 times for Boland, 15 for WP and 15 for Cheetahs
Meyer Bosman 59 times for the Cheetahs
Louis Ludik 59 times for the Lions
Very interesting Rob. Would never has guessed its Wiehan.
@Ben (Comment 2) : this is his third Currie Cup campaign already
@robdylan (Comment 3) : Jeez. Seems like he only started late last year. Also didn’t know that Kyle had played 10 times already. But Kyle has no SupeRugby caps or does he?
Just as long as Craig doesn’t celebrate 50 caps with another yellow card, I will be happy ❗
Oh and congrats Craig. One of my fav players at the Sharks for quite a while now.
@Greg (Comment 5) : I spoke to him. He says he’s sorry and will make up for it this week. I told him to aim for either first or fourth try…
@Ben (Comment 4) : no – I don’t believe Kyle is yet capped at SR level… it’s a bit of a sore point
@robdylan (Comment 7) : And kick a match winning drop goal?
@Greg (Comment 9) : He’s going to show Brian O’Driscoll how to cut a defensive line in half! 😆
@Greg (Comment 9) : no – you need to add Potgieter for that one 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 11) : Didn’t he do that for the cheetahs, against the sharks, not the other way round 😀
@Greg (Comment 12) : yes – in other words, it’s payback time!
@robdylan (Comment 7) : Or both 😛
@robdylan (Comment 13) : Ah, ok then! Does that mean that Michalak is definitely out? JLP is not in my squad, so doesn’t really help me.
Pretty much the only decision I need to make is whether to put Freddy or Sias in my starting 15.
@Greg (Comment 15) : Oh, and of course make some decisions regarding SB 😕 😕
@Greg (Comment 15) : we will only know for sure about Freddy at 3:30 tomorrow
@robdylan (Comment 17) : That’s cutting it a bit fine for Fantasy league 🙁
@Greg (Comment 18) : you’re telling me!
@robdylan (Comment 17) : Does that mean we’ll only get the team tomorrow afternoon?
@Greg (Comment 5) : From your lips . . .
He can thank his lucky stars I don`t have a good option on the bench otherwise he would`ve been replaced this weekend.
Cape Town Steelers can`t afford another bad round!