RUGBY NEWS - Lions coach Swys de Bruin seemingly sent out mixed signals over how the feels about his Currie Cup opposition on Saturday at Ellis Park – the Free State Cheetahs.
The men from Bloemfontein have paid them the compliment of recalling all their Pro14 stars for the clash, which is effectively a quarterfinal.
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The Cheetahs’ approach has raised a few eyebrows, given that they’ve had to play with essentially a C-team for the past six weeks because their top players are involved in the European campaign.
“I must just say that I feel it’s a very interesting thing that you can play in two competitions at the same time,” De Bruin said on Thursday.
“Should they make the Currie Cup final (with their Pro14 players), they’ll have to pick their next best again that week. I’ve said before it’s interesting that some of the Super Rugby teams had to join the Currie Cup race four weeks later because they were still involved in the tournament.”
What De Bruin possibly is trying to say – he hides it quite skilfully – is that the overlapping of tournaments certainly doesn’t help the Currie Cup with prestige and continuity.
