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Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – The Springbok selectors perhaps a little off their best for game one of the international season … but at least on the field it was all engines purring for South African rugby on Saturday.
There could be no doubting the right of the Bulls and Stormers to contest a second all-SA final in four Vodacom Super 14 seasons at Orlando Stadium next weekend.
Not after they finished the league phase first and second and then won their respective semi-finals, against the Crusaders and Waratahs, with petrol to spare.
It’s hard to imagine that even the most one-eyed of local enthusiasts would have anticipated the sides from Pretoria and Cape Town squeezing the life out of their New Zealand and Australian opponents quite as convincingly as they did.
Certainly we had confirmation anew of how hard it is to finish in the third and fourth semis spots on the table and have to make a hasty overseas trek for the knockout affairs: the Crusaders were downed by 15 points and the men from New South Wales by 19. Thanks for coming, and all that.
But the bigger picture now is a dream “north versus south” match-up in Soweto, where top-flight rugby had a promising baptism on Saturday – especially once all the Bulls supporters had finally got to their seats – and will doubtless only be more atmospheric when old Bok allies Victor Matfield and Schalk Burger lead out the rival sides for the showpiece.
The semis were contrasting affairs in some respects: there was greater fluidity and far more in the way of try-line visits on the first one, as the Bulls and Crusaders dotted three apiece despite the defending champions’ more general superiority.
Newlands was significantly more grinding and stop-start, with Juan de Jongh’s sizzling, virtuoso try the only one on the night.
Not that the Stormers players and fans will care a hoot – semis don’t have to be sexy and that franchise are in their maiden final thanks to a clinical, sober performance to match an earlier 27-6 shut-out of the offensively impotent Waratahs at the same venue this season.
Who will be favourites for the grand occasion, then? Shrewd neutrals will probably install the Bulls for that mantle, and rightly, you would think.
If not at their treasured Loftus, at least the game remains on the Highveld for them and with almost certain majority support – even if the Stormers have a surprisingly swollen fan base themselves in the Big Smoke and environs.
The Bulls have also been there and done that – twice – in finals of this tournament and a healthy bunch of their troops will be running out for their third Super 14 showpieces. So butterflies are understandably likelier in the enemy camp.
Mind you, there was little evidence of stage-fright in the way the Stormers kept Phil Waugh and company at arm’s length, even if the set scrum has turned a tad vulnerable at a bad time of the campaign.
That has been the case for three weeks, as creaking started against the Sharks, didn’t quite correct itself against the “Bulls B” pack despite a thumping win, and then was back more conspicuously again against the Waratahs.
Some of the problems appear to start on Brok Harris’s tighthead side, where this otherwise yeoman workhorse has gone off the right-shoulder boil just as people were beginning to talk “Bok cap” for him.
Could it just be that some tiredness has set in for one of the more “flogged” members, gametime-wise, of the Stormers’ tight five this campaign?
The Cape side, one suspects, will nevertheless be hoping Wicus Blaauw can compensate by feasting, as he has sometimes done before, at loosehead on Werner Kruger, the Bulls No 3.
That said, Kruger had a very decent outing against the Crusaders, putting in a lot of focus and commitment at scrum-time so his spirits have been done no harm in the lead-up to next Saturday.
There will be intriguing one-on-one duels right across the park in the showpiece, and notably in the “nine, 10 and 12” channels, where both finalists were admirably served in the respective semis.
Fourie du Preez, the Bulls scrumhalf, was masterful against the Crusaders, his passing game right on the button – he has that uncanny ability to suddenly flip out an unexpectedly long and speedy one, causing huge defensive consternation for the opposition – while his blindside break for a try from a scrum in the 63rd minute to basically bury Richie McCaw’s team was a sublime bit of anticipation and awareness on his part.
The respective goal-kickers are right in the groove, too – Morne Steyn in the first semi-final and Peter Grant in the second did the job in near-clockwork fashion.
It is safe to assume that the Stormers, with their broad defensive competence that was again so evident in dismantling the Waratahs, will deal rather better with the high bombs than the Crusaders did in Soweto – this was a key area of their downfall.
And if there is one area where the likely underdogs for the final will plan to gain some headway, it is in exploiting the still slightly ropey first-time tackling by the Bulls.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that the Crusaders had some strong spells of quality real estate and possession, a feature of the 2010 Bulls side is their coolness and ability to strike back with demoralising venom themselves after periods under the cosh.
“The Bulls have led the way this season, but we’re trying hard to match them and anything can happen in a final,” was Schalk Burger’s earliest television soundbite about next weekend, in the immediate afterglow of seeing off the Waratahs.
It seemed a pertinent assessment, ahead of a game we all await with serious relish …
Cape Town – The Springbok selectors perhaps a little off their best for game one of the international season … but at least on the field it was all engines purring for South African rugby on Saturday.
There could be no doubting the right of the Bulls and Stormers to contest a second all-SA final in four Vodacom Super 14 seasons at Orlando Stadium next weekend.
Not after they finished the league phase first and second and then won their respective semi-finals, against the Crusaders and Waratahs, with petrol to spare.
It’s hard to imagine that even the most one-eyed of local enthusiasts would have anticipated the sides from Pretoria and Cape Town squeezing the life out of their New Zealand and Australian opponents quite as convincingly as they did.
Certainly we had confirmation anew of how hard it is to finish in the third and fourth semis spots on the table and have to make a hasty overseas trek for the knockout affairs: the Crusaders were downed by 15 points and the men from New South Wales by 19. Thanks for coming, and all that.
But the bigger picture now is a dream “north versus south” match-up in Soweto, where top-flight rugby had a promising baptism on Saturday – especially once all the Bulls supporters had finally got to their seats – and will doubtless only be more atmospheric when old Bok allies Victor Matfield and Schalk Burger lead out the rival sides for the showpiece.
The semis were contrasting affairs in some respects: there was greater fluidity and far more in the way of try-line visits on the first one, as the Bulls and Crusaders dotted three apiece despite the defending champions’ more general superiority.
Newlands was significantly more grinding and stop-start, with Juan de Jongh’s sizzling, virtuoso try the only one on the night.
Not that the Stormers players and fans will care a hoot – semis don’t have to be sexy and that franchise are in their maiden final thanks to a clinical, sober performance to match an earlier 27-6 shut-out of the offensively impotent Waratahs at the same venue this season.
Who will be favourites for the grand occasion, then? Shrewd neutrals will probably install the Bulls for that mantle, and rightly, you would think.
If not at their treasured Loftus, at least the game remains on the Highveld for them and with almost certain majority support – even if the Stormers have a surprisingly swollen fan base themselves in the Big Smoke and environs.
The Bulls have also been there and done that – twice – in finals of this tournament and a healthy bunch of their troops will be running out for their third Super 14 showpieces. So butterflies are understandably likelier in the enemy camp.
Mind you, there was little evidence of stage-fright in the way the Stormers kept Phil Waugh and company at arm’s length, even if the set scrum has turned a tad vulnerable at a bad time of the campaign.
That has been the case for three weeks, as creaking started against the Sharks, didn’t quite correct itself against the “Bulls B” pack despite a thumping win, and then was back more conspicuously again against the Waratahs.
Some of the problems appear to start on Brok Harris’s tighthead side, where this otherwise yeoman workhorse has gone off the right-shoulder boil just as people were beginning to talk “Bok cap” for him.
Could it just be that some tiredness has set in for one of the more “flogged” members, gametime-wise, of the Stormers’ tight five this campaign?
The Cape side, one suspects, will nevertheless be hoping Wicus Blaauw can compensate by feasting, as he has sometimes done before, at loosehead on Werner Kruger, the Bulls No 3.
That said, Kruger had a very decent outing against the Crusaders, putting in a lot of focus and commitment at scrum-time so his spirits have been done no harm in the lead-up to next Saturday.
There will be intriguing one-on-one duels right across the park in the showpiece, and notably in the “nine, 10 and 12” channels, where both finalists were admirably served in the respective semis.
Fourie du Preez, the Bulls scrumhalf, was masterful against the Crusaders, his passing game right on the button – he has that uncanny ability to suddenly flip out an unexpectedly long and speedy one, causing huge defensive consternation for the opposition – while his blindside break for a try from a scrum in the 63rd minute to basically bury Richie McCaw’s team was a sublime bit of anticipation and awareness on his part.
The respective goal-kickers are right in the groove, too – Morne Steyn in the first semi-final and Peter Grant in the second did the job in near-clockwork fashion.
It is safe to assume that the Stormers, with their broad defensive competence that was again so evident in dismantling the Waratahs, will deal rather better with the high bombs than the Crusaders did in Soweto – this was a key area of their downfall.
And if there is one area where the likely underdogs for the final will plan to gain some headway, it is in exploiting the still slightly ropey first-time tackling by the Bulls.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that the Crusaders had some strong spells of quality real estate and possession, a feature of the 2010 Bulls side is their coolness and ability to strike back with demoralising venom themselves after periods under the cosh.
“The Bulls have led the way this season, but we’re trying hard to match them and anything can happen in a final,” was Schalk Burger’s earliest television soundbite about next weekend, in the immediate afterglow of seeing off the Waratahs.
It seemed a pertinent assessment, ahead of a game we all await with serious relish …
