After only a few weeks the Western Province club rugby season has already lost some of its intrigue.
And my bitterheid lies with the fixtures list and whoever made it
If you are planning on having a season that goes down to the wire, then you cannot schedule a match between the two biggest title challengers as early as their third match.
Still, that’s what happened this past weekend when Maties, who lost their title to defending champions False Bay last season, locked horns at the Danie Craven Stadium.
Pardon me, but shouldn’t the defending champs get to host their biggest title rivals if the teams only play each other once in a season?
Anyway, it was tight with Maties winning 41-40 with an extra-time try.
But while the battle was interesting until the end, it knocked the daylights out of the league.
Now, after only four rounds, Maties are again the team to beat.
Yes, Tygerberg’s Tiere are also still unbeaten. But whether they can challenge the Maroon Machine for the title remains to be seen.
Maties ended a fixture pile-up against UniMil last night.
And again, what should have been a pleasant experience – after promotion last season - it has somewhat been spoilt by a fixture list that will knock the smaak out of any player’s mouth at UniMil.
Isma-Eel Dollie’s men surprised all and sundry when they beat Durbell in the opening weekend.
What a way to enter the league.
But they came crashing down soon afterwards with defeats to another top team Hamiltons and SK Walmer.
Admittedly the Walmer fixture was not the toughest, but to play three title chasing teams in the first four weeks will be tough on anyone.
To make it worse, they have False Bay on Saturday, making it four top teams in five matches. How about mixing it up a bit more gents?
Anyway, back to Maties.
If Ikeys still had a strong team, club fans would have wished for them to get the better of their old foes in Saturday’s intervarsity match at the University of Cape Town.
Just to make it interesting again.
But the level of rugby played at Ikeys has dropped over the past year and even though it’s intervarsity, fans can expect one-way traffic.
It’s at the Brackenfell Sports Field where Tygerberg will face yet another test against their hosts.
Brackenfell, who was promoted last season, proved that they can hang with the big dogs in 2016 and they are proving it’s not beginner’s luck.
The Brakke have bite again this year and are currently in third place after three wins from four outings.
Tygerberg are the only league’s only unbeaten side alongside Maties and victory over their northern rivals will create belief among the Ravensmead men that this might be their year.