RUGBY NEWS - They say that a week is a long time in rugby and this one building up to a bye weekend for the Springboks and a Currie Cup round that has suddenly become more relevant to the national cause and sparked some interesting debate has been longer than most.
It is hard to believe after all the negativity that has enveloped the Boks since their defeat to the All Blacks that this time last week we were talking about an unbeaten team and living in hope that they might push the Kiwis on their home turf and signal their intent to challenge for world supremacy.
As it turned out it only takes 80 minutes for many to change from positive to depressed and negative, or perhaps more precisely, seven minutes as it was the soft points the Kiwis scored between the 13th minute and the 20th minute that effectively killed off the game and precipitated the seismic shift in the psychology not just of the team but also many of their supporters.
As a consequence, even though a largely unchanged squad has been selected for the home Rugby Championship tests, and you do have to question whether national coach Allister Coetzee is sending out the right message to his team with that decision, there are now many who are looking at the Currie Cup for possible answers.
