Who's the loser?
Mike Harrison
HARLEQUINS' withdrawal from their much-anticipated season-end clash with Thanda Zululand Rhinos at Mick Kelly Park on Friday night was not only a big disappointment for everybody, including the spectators, sponsors and caterers but, in particular, the players who were looking forward to the big occasion, hoping to avenge their defeat when these two sides met at the Bluff earlier in the season.
As Rhinos captain Warren Graff said, 'It was payback time'.
And with the Rhinos at full strength, they were looking forward to giving them a real run around. Of course, the five points earned from this match are important as it does give the Rhinos a good chance of overtaking the Jaguars and moving into fourth position on the Moor Cup log.
The latter played Old Boys at Riverside on Friday night and went down 25-10.
They will play Crusaders at Capel Road on Saturday 12 July and, on current form, have little chance of winning.
Even terms
As things stand at the moment the Rhinos and Jaguars are on even terms in joint fourth place with 30 points each.
Empangeni will travel to Maritzburg for their final match against the students and will have to come away with five points if they hope to secure that vital final spot.
This will give them a home match in the quarter-finals of the Murray Cup which gets underway on Friday 25 July.
Big loss
The knock-on effect of Harlequins' cancellation is huge. The loss of door revenue, food and bar turnover from the large crowd that was expected is enormous.
On top of this, Thanda Private Game Reserve, Empangeni Rugby Club's sponsor, were sending down their Zulu dancers to add festivities, in true Zululand fashion, to the occasion.
Plus the parents of JP Immelman and Richard Aingworth had travelled long distances to watch their sons in action.
Harlequins cancelled only on Thursday evening. Jakes Jacobs, their club administrator, was most apologetic. They could have at least come up with two sides.
But their senior officials were adamant that they were not prepared to travel after the Natal Rugby Union withdrew two of their star players to compete in the Varsities Cup, which is on the go at the moment.
This obviously upset them and led to their rash decision of withdrawing.
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