When Manie Libbok kicked the conversion that secured the Stormers home-ground advantage in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship (URC) final he gave the competition organisers what they were looking for a year ago.
There were plans for Cape Town to be the neutral venue final for the 2021 competition. Having Cape Town Stadium with its Table Mountain backdrop stage the showpiece event was seen as a great way to sell the new competition.
What is different about Saturday’s final in comparison to what Covid-19 prevented from happening a year ago is that Cape Town is now not a neutral venue. And the final is being contested by two SA teams, which was still a fanciful thought just a week ago given how formidable Leinster on their Dublin home ground appeared to be.
While the Stormers left it late before doing what many expected them to do on their home ground, the Bulls made the biggest statement. A statement not only about what Leinster coach Leo Cullen admitted SA participation has now made a “bloody hard” competition, but also about how competitive the SA challenge should be in the European Champions Cup next season.
Leinster had won the URC in its previous guise as the Pro14 four times on the trot. Which is why the SA participation has been seen as a positive by so many Irish people — there was a feeling that Leinster’s hegemony had turned the competition into a procession. The Irish giants being challenged was seen as a good thing.
They’ve now been more than challenged, however, they’ve been usurped. And given that Leinster are such a powerhouse in Europe, the Bulls’ performance has sent out an unambiguous message about the chances of SA sides doing well in the Champions Cup.
I say “sides” because though the Bulls outplayed Leinster, there isn’t much if anything separating the Bulls from the other two local participants in the 2022/2023 Champions Cup. The Stormers have beaten the Bulls both times they’ve played them this season, and the Sharks’ late drop-goal defeat to the Bulls in the Loftus quarterfinal was their first loss in three starts against the Pretoria franchise.
Leinster did lose the most recent Champions Cup final narrowly to La Rochelle, but they were significantly the better team in all the games they played before the decider. And were considered unbeatable at their home ground of RDS Arena, which was where they were beaten by the Bulls.
The Ulster team that the Stormers have now beaten twice in the space of a few months also has a high standing in Europe. They went out in the round of 16 double leg tie to Toulouse, but only by the narrowest of margins on aggregate over the two games and they won the away leg.
Rugby’s version of soccer’s Champions League is the next frontier for SA teams, but for the Stormers and Bulls this coming weekend’s game is going to be the equivalent of the inaugural all-SA Super Rugby final played at Kings Park in 2007.
For the Stormers in particular, given their lack of financial muscle and the off-field instability that hogged any media about Western Province rugby for so long, securing a home final is a particularly heady achievement. I have written before that compared to the more financially powerful Sharks and Bulls, they are more West Ham than Manchester City or Liverpool, and until they get an equity partner that will remain the case.
What their achievement of backing up their second position on the log by securing a home final has done though is confirm what the premier Cape team can achieve if the coaches and players are removed from the off-field politics and left to treat rugby as their primary focus.
In particular, credit must be given to their coach John Dobson, who for a long time before SA Rugby put WP into administration and the competent Rian Oberholzer took charge as interim CEO, was having to double his role as coach with that of quasi-CEO.
The Bulls have also travelled a long way since entering a business partnership that prioritised rugby excellence. Whoever wins on Saturday will be worthy winners of the trophy and will have done it the hard way. But the real winner will be the SA professional game at local level, something that was considered under threat this time in 2021.
The only pity is that the stadium won’t be the sell-out Kings Park was for the 2007 Super 12 final between the Sharks and Bulls because of the absurd continuation of the limits that the government has placed on crowd capacities.
It certainly felt as though Cape Town Stadium was more than 50% full in the semifinal, and the atmosphere was the best yet since the onset of the pandemic. But it’s ridiculous that there is any limit at all. The government owes it to the people they are supposed to serve to end the farce.
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