Wrap Week 6:

Os Du Randt took off a decade to go and farm and is now training for France, a world cup that is 12 years after the first one he played in. Luke McAllister’s dad told him if he wanted to make it he should take a year off and just gym, his legs now weigh 90kgs each. Chris Latham took 11 months off for a knee reconstruction, ran on in a test against the All Blacks and his first touch was a 60m touch finder…

We were forced to take an exceptionally long 9 week break and the League got up like a sleeping, conditioning, or injured giant to run amok up and down the Green Mile. A length lay-off does zero for momentum or continuity but it can rest tired bodies and refocus tired minds. Players came back eager and super keen to get stuck in.

It is an interesting aside that WP has decided to do the same. They have taken off this years Currie Cup and haven’t pitched up to any matches. I think they are focusing on Super 14 2008.

Sides how ever weren’t indolent however during this long layoff and some were in fact very active. The Nadoes and Purple Cobras went off on a whirlwind tour of the Eastern Cape playing such rugby stalwarts as Plett RFC, each others and the bouncers at Dropzone. Whilst Kopano and Smuts also enjoyed a quaint weekend away together at an undisclosed venue to hone the mauling skills.

The Wildboys entered the Knysna half en masse with most players walking straight from the starters pistol to the gates of the Crabs Creek after-party and the Shebeen Boys spent the winter posing for their upcoming 2008 Get naked for charity calendar, which is apparently meant to be the xmas present of choice this year.

Of course the Panthers returned to their summer houses in the south of Spain but this time not with rugby objectives but for the World Mullet Pageant where they impressive took First, 3rd and all the number from 5th-10th.

Unfortunately the lay-off wasn’t as lucrative and enjoyable with other teams as College, Marquard, Clarendon and Ikhaya all had to stay and do winter school, whilst the Turtles went back to Zimbabwe and are still hitching hiking back, pushing your car takes too long.

The Spanners were invited to an International Engineering Summit but were too disorganized to arrive. Ubumbo spent the break investing at the JSE and as an accumulative now have more preferential shares and board room seats in South Africa’s big businesses than Premier League football owners have in European equivalents. Most of the Eastern Cape to Rio’s (and hence the Barbarians since I'm not convinced they're separate entities) got arrested for drunken driving so spent 9 weeks bulking up in the awaiting trial prisoner’s gym facility at Goodwood prison.

Last night was the Week 6 of 2007 which to get technical was the 2nd week of pool matches in Round 2 leading up to the play-offs. Now that it is done we have two more weeks of pool matches (August 8th and 15th) and then we’re into the Play offs.

With the top 2 sides of every pool advancing to the Cup competition and the bottom advancing Bowl competition sides are playing attacking rugby to finish as high up there pool as possible.

In Pool D the Eastern Cape 2 Rios were horribly let down by a Spanner’s no show, so took the full points and nothing else from the disappointment. Panthers and Turtles then had a very physical encounter that was tight until deep into the 2nd half when the Panthers scored (through so excellent footwork) but the Turtles bounced back to score, convert and take the lead. Panthers then scored twice more near the death to give the score line a fair assessment of position and territory but an unfair testament to some staunch Turtle defence. The only difference between numerous Panthers line breaks and points on the board was relentless Turtle tackling.

In Pool B a very new look (new in appearance not new in age) Ikhaya side battled hard against little side Kopano but to no avail as the determined boys that spend all day trying to look into the windows of Graca Michel wouldn’t let anyone over their try line and they walked away 5-0 winners. I didn’t see the next game but heard it was a classic examples of hard, fast and attacking Internal League rugby when Barbarians took out Marquard 6 tries to 2.

In Pool A Nadoes ran riot against a brave Clarendon side. I am not using brave euphemistically to pander a team that took 50 as the Clarendon boys could easily have woken up in Carinus this morning and looked themselves in the mirror with pride. They were heavily outgunned but totally undeterred and gave everything for all 60 minutes. Concurrently another bravely fought losing battle was meted out by College against a more and more deadly looking Ubumbo outfit. College played an impressive amount of rugby but the Ubumbo charge was just too fast, too aggressive and too organized to halt.

This has become a reoccurring theme but massive thanks and congratulations must go out to our ad hoc refereeing committee that has been summoned for the 2nd round in a row and which has performed with such class and control we are deeply indebted. Chad, Stu Mac, Sean, Burt, Mike and Pig thank you so much guys. In my eyes you are the only guys justified to abuse the officials from the sidelines from now on.

Team of the week: Kopano. Traditionally a very strong team the boys from Belsen always arrived and stamp themselves underdog status but then perform to the potential and have more ‘shut outs’ on defence this season than many sided. And also because baby blue is so 2008.

The WP team of the week: Spanners – see you next week.

Massive apologies: Eastern Cape 2 Rios – you guys are used to getting all dressed up and going home along but not when it comes to rugby. Sorry dudes.

Try of the week: Nadoes, Ubumbo and Barbarians scored some crackers and the interplay of the one Panthers try was sick but it’s going to an individual today. Taking flat fast attack ball at first receiver Edward (someone) in the mauve of College house, showed the ball inside, looked for a man outside, and went himself straight through a flummoxed Ubumbo defence. Touches like that are priceless…

Celebration of the week: The Marquard fullback crossed over for a cracker against the Barbarians but then did everything short of a victory lap in his whooping hi5 throwing end zone dance. He should have got 6 points not 5…