Kia Cerato
I’m a Sharks fan like no other, so much so in fact that I support my province over my country. I dislike Brian Habana with a firery passion thanks to his heart-breaking 84th minute try in the 2007 Super 14 final, that quite frankly stole a well deserved victory from the Sharks. And no, I don’t care how many tries he scores for the Boks.
Clearly it will come as no surprise that I have some rather strong and sometimes unpopular views on the various selections made for the Springbok team. Closest to my heart being that of Morne Steyn over Ruan Pienaar – who, with ball in hand, is one of the most exciting and elegant players I’ve ever had the joy of watching.
Poor Ruan had the misfortune of missing a large portion of the 2009 Super 14 season due to injury. Which was horrible timing as P. Divvy had only just reshuffled the Bok backline to slot Ruan in at flyhalf. With the British and Irish Lions tour looming, his injury was as welcome as being kicked in the groin, twice.
Back in Pretoria, Morne Steyn kicked drop goal after dreary drop goal to win the hearts of the Loftus faithful during the Super 14. As well as to earn a place on the bench for the Boks.
It came as no real surprise that Ruan came back from injury a bit rusty and sorely lacking in confidence. Which was only compounded when every narrow-minded Bulls fan (and various other rugby personalities) bemoaned the fact that P. Divvy hadn’t decided to start Morne against the Lions. I hate that stupid ‘Maak al die Bulle Bokke’ song.
At the end of the day I don’t see De Villiers as having any choice in the matter. A decision was made that changed Ruan’s entire outlook on his game by asking him to move from his favoured position of scrumhalf into the gaping hole left by Butch James. Bok management could hardly kick Ruan into touch after that one.
Anyway we all know how the Lions story ends. After Ruan admittedly didn’t exactly play all that well – albeit understandable – Morne, the most boring flyhalf of the 21st century with all of 3 runs in his 9 Bok caps and 85 Bulls appearances, kicked some more so as to put me to sleep during one of very few Lion’s tours I’ll ever see.
Yes we won the series thanks to Morne’s infallable accuracy off the kicking tee (note I’m not narrow-minded, I can admit when someone has good qualities). However South African rugby took a turn for the worse when kicking became a number one priority – to the extent that Morne was attempting drop goals or kicking for the corner flag at every opportunity, despite the three-man overlap on his outside.
Now that I’ve had my say, lets assume for the purposes of this article (warning: enormous assumption coming up) that Morne is a better all-round flyhalf than Ruan.
Which brings me to the Kia Cerato. It’s a good looking car; as I said in my review of the Soul, Kia really are making huge strides in this department. Inside is rather impressive too, it’s spacious, well built and offers plenty of functionality. The drive is also a step in the right direction, despite an over sensitive variable steering rack. And the power is simply tremendous for a Korean engine, for any engine in fact.
The way I see it, the Cerato is much like my Ruan Pienaar assumption. Good, but just not good enough to be the best. So unfortunately despite all the positives, there’s one name out there that trumps all the rest. The Chevrolet Cruze.
Price: R 179 995
Engine: 1.6l – In-Line 4 DOHC CVVT
Power: 91 kW
Torque: 156 Nm
Acceleration (0-100 km/h): 10.3
Top speed: 190 km/h
Fuel consumption: 6.6/100km
Verdict – Ruan Pienaar in the mind of a Bull’s supporter
Miles Downard
Photo Credit: Quickpic