Player of the Cup
Wikus van Heerden and Anton Leonard (joint award)
There were a number of others in with a shout of taking this prize, but this pair were by far the most influential players in the two top teams in the Absa Currie Cup.

Van Heerden, who was deservedly called up to the Springbok squad on Monday, led his team from the front with boisterous runs over the advantage line. When he wasn't on the field the Lions were not the same team, as was seen in their match against the Leopards at Ellis Park, when he came on as a second-half substitute and turned potential disaster into victory.

Without Leonard, said Naas Botha last week, the Bulls looked a little rudderless. His substitution in the final was a greater loss to the Bulls than the yellow card given to Bryan Habana. Had to be dragged off the field in the semifinal. Would run through a brick wall for his team and it sometimes looked as though he had.

Would run through a brick wall for his team

Top points scorer
Willem de Waal - 120 points
De Waal's 19 points in Saturday's final saw him edge out Morné Steyn in this competition by just two points. If the Bulls had chose to kick three penalties in that match instead of opting for line-outs, Steyn may have won them the tournament. De Waal's kicking style is an achingly slow one, but shows the immense control of the man. He scored one try, 17 conversions and 27 penalties.


Top tryscorer
Rayno Benjamin - 8
The Boland flier just managed to outscore Zhahier Ryland, the young Western Province star, who burst on to the scene halfway through the tournament, scoring three of his seven tries against the Lions at Ellis Park. Jongi Nokwe scored five tries, while Roland Cooke, Akona Ndungane and Pedrie Wannenburg got six each.

'I think he passed it to Barend because they used to be roommates'

Try of the Cup
Bevin Fortuin
(Absa Currie Cup final)
Nokwe and Ryland were up for this one for their performances against the Blue Bulls and the Lions, respectively. Ryland, whom the SA Rugby website describes as the quickest man in South African rugby (but then does not tell one just how quick he is) left Wylie Human looking for parking as he scored a hat-trick at Ellis Park.

His second try was sublime, grubbering past Human, dancing out over the touchline around Human and then over for the try.

Nokwe's two tries against the Bulls were borne of pure speed as he simply hit the line fast and didn't slow down until he got to the other side of the tryline.

Fortuin's try, in the 71st minute of the Absa Currie Cup final, was a total team try. From their own 22, the Cheetahs swept the ball left, then right, with Fortuin carrying it up into the second phase. When it was scampered out right again the 14-man Bulls' defence looked stretched. Naka Drotske passed to Kabamba Floors, who found Ryno van der Merwe outside him. The eighthman drew the last defender and put Fortuin away down the right wing. Fortuin later said that he had "no words to express the joy he felt" after he scored.


Line-out throw of the Cup
Cobus Grobbelaar
In their home match against the Cheetahs, the Lions flank had perhaps the silliest moment of his career. The Cheetahs had kicked the ball out on the Lions five-metre line when Grobbelaar decided to pop a quick throw over the top of his team-mates to Barend Pieterse, who fell over in shock to score an unlikely try. "I think he passed it to Barend because they used to be roommates," joked scrumhalf Nic Eyre.

Gary Botha's toss in the final over Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha to the Cheetahs backline was equally inexplicable, having given up an easy three points in the quest for five.


Quotes of the Cup
"It's not rock science." - Frans Ludeke, on at least three separate occasions. We're beginning to suspect that he's saying it on purpose.

"You look at what this means to a guy like Os du Randt. He's won everything - the World Cup, the Tri-Nations, the young farmer of the year - and he hasn't stopped crying in the changeroom." - Rassie Erasmus after the Absa Currie Cup final.

"We have to saddle in quickly." - Ludeke, again.

"Bull****! Don't you try to bull**** me!" - Referee Tappe Henning to a forward and on live television.

"I'll get you f***ing bastards back!" - John Robbie after he was stitched up a treat on Boots 'n All by Joel Stransky in a skit for comedy show Laugh Out Loud.

"Why don't they pick Akona (Ndungane) for the Springboks?" - Small white kid outside the press box at Loftus on Saturday.

"Because Jake White doesn't like him or any of the Bulls." - Pretoria rugby writer in a foul mood after his team had lost.


Drop-goal of the Cup
André Pretorius
Early in the season Pretorius, having missed two drop attempts in a match at Ellis Park, told this journalist that the next drop he kicked would by his first. He made up for it, with that ridiculous 60m drop against Griquas in Kimberley. He has knocked over 40m efforts and kicked six drops, the most in the tournament.

Johan Roets of the Blue Bulls deserves special mention for his Stephen Larkham-like effort, hit on the run in the Currie Cup final, a short stab of a drop that just squeezed over the bar.


DVD collector
Jonathan Kaplan
He was sent DVDs by the Blue Bulls on a regular basis to point out where they thought he had erred. Much to their chagrin, Kaplan did not reply to their invitations to beat himself with a birch twig and admit that he was wrong. One of the Blue Bulls coaching staff said after the final that the team reckoned Kaplan was the difference between them winning and losing the match. Another even suggested that Kaplan was biased against them.

Kaplan also received a neat highlights package from Kobus van der Merwe of Western Province, pointing out 30 instances where they thought they had been hard done by in their match against the Bulls at Loftus. These included punches being thrown in line-outs, players being taken out and obstruction. Of course, the DVD failed to point out that Province were just plain awful on the day.


Eyesight award
Most referees
Tappe Henning likes to have everything confirmed when consulting linesmen or going upstairs to the television referee. When told that the try was good, Tappe would speak in a loud strident voice: "Are you saying to me that the try is good and that I can therefore award it?"

What you can't hear on the other end is the TV ref going: "Are you bleeding deaf? Of course I did." We're still trying to figure out how Jonny Kaplan missed Jacques Cronjé's punch on Ollie le Roux in the final.


Tackle of the season
Kabamba Floors
Rassie Erasmus called Floors the Cheetahs' "trump card" when he put him on in the second half. The fighting spirit of Free State was epitomised by Floors when he hit Danie Rossouw back in the tackle, picking him up and marching him back before dumping him in a heap on the deck.

Floors is 87kg and 1,76m tall. Rossouw is 118kg and 1,98m. Do the maths.


Weeper of the Cup
Os du Randt
What's all that about, Os? The young farmer of the year in tears? Good on ya, though, you made a crier out of me.


Worst song
Ek Bly 'n Bul
Take your pick from any one of Loftus favourite Ek Bly 'n Bul, Pale Toe from Ellis Park or the recently-released Habana-na-na, which was blasted out of the speakers in Pretoria at the most inappropriate times during the final.

The South African Rugby Union really should do something about it. There are young impressionable children at matches these days who will grow up believing that Ou Ryperd has some musical merit.


Celebration of the year
Ollie le Roux
The big fella was in fine fettle immediately after the whistle, getting a bottle of beer and lighting up a cigar as he walked around Loftus where he had been booed so heartily. In the post-match function, Le Roux had just got a beer from the bar, and turned back to the barmen. "Better give me another couple to get me through the speeches," he said. We were also impressed at how the entire team walked around the field chugging beers out of plastic Cups.

Wayne Julies's goose-stepping, chest-pounding effort after he scored his second try against the Bulls in the semi would have earned respect from any American Football player.


RIP
Ettienne Botha
A sad loss of one of the men who lit up the last couple of Currie Cup tournaments. His cup final try against the Cheetahs last year was the mark of a man with as sweet a side-step as you could wish for.

• This article was originally published on page 26 of The Star on October 25, 2005