The Vodacom United Rugby Championship may be the big elephant in the room, but there is no doubting that the Carling Currie Cup still means something ahead of the final at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday.
In many ways it is both perplexing and intriguing, as both the Hollywoodbets Sharks and Fidelity ADT Lions will battle it out for the world’s oldest domestic trophy with one eye on a bigger season, and hoping not to pick up injuries in their quest for glory.
The teams may well talk about the Currie Cup being lesser than the URC, but it is clear from team selections in the past few weeks that a trophy still matters to both sides, even though they may not want to admit it.
For the Lions this is very much a dream of redemption. For a side that has less resources than the Sharks, they have invested heavily in their junior programme, stuck with coach Mzwakhe Nkosi and seen the benefits of a good junior programme coming to fruition.
The Johannesburg union has made no secret of their desire to win the Currie Cup, hoping that it would kickstart a golden era very much in the same vein as the 2015 side did for three consecutive Super Rugby finals that started the next year.
And for Nkosi, that victory will be forever sweet, especially as he was thrown in at the deep end three years ago and lost nine games in a row. To the Lions credit, their long term investment has paid off.
Nkosi has learnt the lessons of those days and believes he is now a much better coach for experiencing it.
“As a franchise we weren’t aligned in how we were going to do the URC [United Rugby Championship] and the Currie Cup. That alongside a whole host of other things made it an incredibly difficult season,” he said.
“I had to pick myself up from that. I’m not afraid to say I’m proud in the way I’ve done it. To go to three junior finals consecutively and last year’s Currie Cup was decent considering the changes that had to be made,” he said about a campaign that left them just two points outside the play-offs.
“We were still working out how to play URC one week and Currie Cup on the Wednesday. We have taken those lessons into this year. With a bit of grace I survived and was able to hang in there.”
Nkosi continued believing in his own talents.
“Without blowing my own horn there was a body of work that I produced. The work I put in and the trophies I’d won from a junior perspective.
“Sometimes the top brass incur some criticism. I think they’d be the first to admit that was not the most ideal environment for a young coach to function in. To their credit they stuck to their word. Not to say there wasn’t robust and vigorous conversations, but they stuck to their word. Thankfully I stayed in the job and hopefully this is just reward for them backing me.”
The Lions one blemish this year came at home against the Sharks, which reversed the win in Durban with a massive scoreline in Johannesburg.
“We beat them two weeks before in Durban and felt we could have won by a bigger margin,” Nkosi said.
“And this is the thing about having a youthful squad, maybe there was an element of taking things for granted. Or not being as sharp and on it as we should have been and to be fair to them they created the bounce of the ball.”
“It was more than a wake-up call. It strengthened our convictions about the way we want to play. We got suckered into a kicking game with Lionel Cronjé. We just never threw any punches, we just waited. There was no catalyst to get us going.”
The Sharks, on the other hand, have had to be circumspect with one eye on the URC and bigger competitions taking their focus. Their opening game next weekend against Connacht has meant John Plumtree has had to juggle his resources, and the toll that the 100-minute thriller at Loftus in the semifinal has taken has also been on his mind.
But the excitement of the final has taken control.
“There is a genuine excitement in KZN over this opportunity so we can’t help but get excited,” Plumtree said at the team announcement this week.
“We won the (EPCR) Challenge Cup just a few months ago so this would be a second trophy in a short space of time. We know the big picture is that we have got to do well in the URC and in Europe, but we are in the final now so we will give it a good crack. It has been a good week. We had to adjust our training load quite a lot from the past couple of weeks.
“We played 100 minutes at altitude last week (in the semifinal against the Bulls) so we have had to adjust around that and we also fly out for our URC tour just a day and a bit after the game so I have had to give players time off around that too.
"But the players have really enjoyed being part of a week building up to a final. Not many have played in a Currie Cup final, and those that have won it obviously aren’t from around here (because the Sharks haven’t won the domestic trophy since 2018).”
Two different sets of objectives, two very different scenarios for each team, but one trophy is on offer.
And on Saturday it will be another chapter in the tapestry of the Currie Cup.
And there will again be drama.
And a new winner will be crowned as well.
Fidelity ADT Lions: To be announced
Hollywoodbets Sharks XV: Jordan Hendrikse, Eduan Keyter, Jurenzo Julius, Andre Esterhuizen, Ethan Hooker, Siya Masuku, Bradley Davids, Emmanuel Tshituka, Vincent Tshituka (captain), James Venter, Emile van Heerden, Corne Rahl, Hanro Jacobs, Fez Mbatha, Ntuthuko Mchunu.
Replacements: Dylan Richardson, Trevor Nyakane, Mawande Mdande, Jason Jenkins, Gerbrandt Grobler, Tino Mavesere, Tian Meyer, Lionel Cronje.
Referee: Morne Ferreira
Assistant Referees: Griffin Colby, Stephan Geldenhuys
Television Match Official: Egon Seconds
Split Screen: Ben Crouse
Kickoff: 4pm
Prediction: Lions to buck the passion of the home crowd and win a close final.