Okay, now we’re finally ready to go. After a week of doing pretty much nothing and, for some, having to trek all the way to Johannesburg for an ill-timed Springbok training camp, preparations can start in earnest for the Sharks and Western Province for this weekend’s Absa Currie Cup final in Durban.

By Jacques van der Westhuyzen

It is still a mystery why the final has to take place two weeks after the semifinals, but that’s a matter for another time, while Bok boss Peter de Villiers’s decision to hold a national training camp last Friday and yesterday, where not much will have been gained, smacks of panic.

That said, however, he won’t have much time after the final to put things in place for the Grand Slam tour to the UK, considering the first match is Saturday week.

But, while agreeing to release their players (18 in total) for the camp, Sharks coach John Plumtree and his Western Province counterpart, Allister Coetzee, would not have been all that impressed, or pleased.

The two-week gap between the semis and the final may result in both teams losing momentum and, boy, were they on a roll and in some form in the play-offs, while having the disruption of seeing players travelling to Johannesburg for the sake of “putting plans in place for the November tour” will not sit well.

Focus, though, will finally be turned back on the final from today – with all the players resting at home before getting stuck in at training from tomorrow.

The week leading up to the final is generally a quiet one, with the coach doing a bit of tweaking and players getting their minds right.

Attention is also given to the opposition, which means quite a bit of video work and analysis and planning how best to halt the other guys and identify key men in their line-up.

Fortunately for Plumtree and Coetzee, the teams met as recently as two weeks ago when Western Province beat the Sharks in Cape Town, so there will be plenty of fresh material to work with.

The Province team will be pretty much the same side that did the business just over two weeks ago, but won’t be able to call on injured Andries Bekker and Jaque Fourie.

On the side of the Sharks, there are concerns about the availability of Bismarck du Plessis and JP Pietersen who’re both nursing injuries, but they’ll be very much a changed team from the one that faced Province at Newlands.

On that occasion, Plumtree mixed and matched quite a bit, knowing his side were already at home in the semis.

They’ll be a very different outfit to the one Province faced – and they could well be at full strength, with just John Smit absent.

Both teams go into the week – and the match, for that matter – having surprised all and sundry with their showing in the semifinals.

The Sharks did the near-unbelievable by dominating a powerful Bulls pack, while their defence stood firm in the face of some heavy hitting in the latter stages of their match, while in Cape Town, Western Province proved why they’ll be favourites this coming weekend by whipping the Cheetahs in a one-sided contest.

What it will basically come down to on Saturday is the following: If the Sharks can repeat the forwards’ performance they put up against the Bulls, they’ll take some stopping, especially with Charl McLeod, Pat Lambie and Lwazi Mvovo in such devastating form at the back. But if the visitors to Durban win enough ball upfront, their very dangerous backs, chief among them Juan de Jongh, Bryan Habana and Gio Aplon, could cause all sorts of problems for the hosts.

The two teams certainly have different philosophies about the game and they play very different styles, making the 2010 final so much more intriguing to call.

It’s going to be brutally hard up front (think Willem Alberts and Duane Vermeulen smashing tacklers out of the way) and it’s going to be slick and quick at the back (think Mvovo, Aplon and Habana doing their best to out-fox each other).

The Sharks last won the Currie Cup in 2008, but if truth be told they’ve been the big chokers of South African rugby in the past 10 years, promising so much but delivering so little.

They finished first on the log, so have much to gain and plenty to lose.

Province haven’t won the title since 2001 – an awfully long time for a province with so much talent, skill and history.

They, too, will be under pressure to at least get some silverware in the cabinet after what has been a quite stunning year for the team from the Cape.

They played in the final of the Super 14 and lost, and they’ve been the classiest team in the Currie Cup, so failure to bag this one will be viewed as a major choke.

It should be a cracker.

The Absa Stadium showdown kicks off at 5.30pm on Saturday.