WHEN South African rugby sent the Cheetahs and the Southern Kings to contest in the Pro14 against the Irish, Scots, Welsh and Italians, there was a common belief that they weren’t sending their best.
Results proved this assumption to be true as the Kings from the Eastern Cape were perennial recipients of the wooden spoon while the Cheetahs flattered to deceive, offering glimmers of pulsating running rugby on the hard turf in Bloemfontein but melting in the wet up north.
There can be no such qualms now. The Blue Bulls, Golden Lions, Sharks and Stormers, hailing from Pretoria, Johannesburg,...