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Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town - It won't be the Bulls keeping the engravers busy this time, but South Africa's chance of keeping the Vodacom Super Rugby title in the country for a third successive year stays a fairly rosy one.
SA conference winners the Stormers gave themselves an immeasurably more realistic opportunity to claim the overall silverware for the first time by seeing off the Cheetahs by 10 points in chilly Bloemfontein on Saturday.
The result meant manna from heaven for them ... or read, a precious bye next weekend followed by guaranteed home semi-final in a fortnight, the reward for finishing second overall behind the Reds.
Considering that the resilient but increasingly hard-pressed men from Newlands effectively only had one "proper" bye during the gruelling, much-extended ordinary season campaign in 2011, the prospect of an additional, sudden-death fixture in the week ahead - even if it would have been in Cape Town - would have been about as appealing to them as a chunk of cold pie first licked by a slobbery old pooch.
Not only would they have had to get over that hurdle, but then another bout of travel would have been required for the semi-final and probably the showpiece as well.
Instead, as the relieved and ever-chilled Schalk Burger admitted after the triumph in the Free State, his charges could now look forward to such recreational matters as "Father's Day and a couple of wines" before eventually regrouping for the Newlands semi on Saturday July 2.
Whoever they play - and the Crusaders will be their favoured opponents - it will be their second home semi-final in the competition on the trot, after they saw off the Waratahs 25-6 last year.
The initial phase of this season's event has probably ended as most shrewd pundits over the past few days would have fancied it to, with a pair of teams from each of the trio of SANZAR partners making the finals series cut.
This country's other representatives, albeit having to take the extra-game route, are the Sharks, who thrillingly ended the Bulls' two-year stranglehold on Super Rugby - Victor Matfield's side had also won it three times in four years - with a heart-stopping 26-23 win at Loftus in what predictably came to be a straight eliminator.
Not that the Durban franchise will be too spooked by being required to trek to Nelson to play the Crusaders in an effective quarter-final on Saturday: they had a kinder tournament draw than the Stormers this year and in certain respects will be fresher for the big challenge.
The Sharks, who finally put together a suitably stout and fiery big derby performance this year to deservedly edge out the Bulls, are sure to relish the opportunity to have prolonged their stay in the competition as cheeky underdogs - and even some New Zealanders, after viewing events at Loftus, will probably concur that they must have a puncher's chance at Trafalgar Park.
Friday sees the other playoff for a place in the semis against the Reds, featuring the Blues against the Waratahs in Auckland.
Certainly the Crusaders will remain favourites to advance against the team fairly likely to be led by Stefan Terblanche again, as Springbok captain John Smit only got a token 90 seconds off the bench at the death in Pretoria and John Plumtree is unlikely to alter his starting XV a great deal after their inspired showing.
Recent history only tips the scale further in the Cantabrians' favour: the Sharks last beat them in 2007, and that was by a solitary point in Durban (27-26) in the heartbreak season when the Sharks topped the log but lost the final to the Bulls 20-19 courtesy of Bryan Habana's last-gasp try.
Since then it has been four wins in succession for the Crusaders, including this season's meeting at neutral Twickenham (44-28), a champagne game of rugby where the Sharks did well to steal a losing bonus point for four tries.
They will probably steel themselves for Saturday's crunch by suspecting that the Crusaders may well have "peaked" in that encounter, and surely cannot be quite so slick and polished once more.
Meanwhile the Stormers can take stock for a few days, nurse some bruises and then get back into full swing for the semi.
Whether a fortnight will be enough to work a miracle cure on their inspiring No 8 Duane Vermeulen remains to be seen; after being highly influential on both attack and defence for 51 minutes, the big customer unusually went off on a stretcher - enough to suggest that whatever injury he sustained must have been reasonably serious.
Some consolation was Nick Koster entering the fray as replacement, scoring a try within two minutes, and generally playing with the sort of vigour and enterprise to suggest he could plug an emergency hole without too much angst.
The Stormers do need to revisit the drawing board to an extent - aspects of their game have gone off the boil, including their lineout and the unusual concession in Bloemfontein of four tries, despite crossing the whitewash four times themselves.
Peter Grant slotting back in again at No 10 so seamlessly was a major plus, however.
Last word for the Bulls: ultimately, they bowed out of this year’s tournament with honour and bravery, considering that several weeks ago they had looked a sorry mob with virtually no hope of staying in the title picture.
They simply left themselves too much to do in the run-in period, and their last three matches on the trot were all against teams – Waratahs, Stormers and then Sharks - who made it into the finals series.
Attention now turns to how swiftly they can rebuild as they bid farewell to a handful of Loftus legends ...
Cape Town - It won't be the Bulls keeping the engravers busy this time, but South Africa's chance of keeping the Vodacom Super Rugby title in the country for a third successive year stays a fairly rosy one.
SA conference winners the Stormers gave themselves an immeasurably more realistic opportunity to claim the overall silverware for the first time by seeing off the Cheetahs by 10 points in chilly Bloemfontein on Saturday.
The result meant manna from heaven for them ... or read, a precious bye next weekend followed by guaranteed home semi-final in a fortnight, the reward for finishing second overall behind the Reds.
Considering that the resilient but increasingly hard-pressed men from Newlands effectively only had one "proper" bye during the gruelling, much-extended ordinary season campaign in 2011, the prospect of an additional, sudden-death fixture in the week ahead - even if it would have been in Cape Town - would have been about as appealing to them as a chunk of cold pie first licked by a slobbery old pooch.
Not only would they have had to get over that hurdle, but then another bout of travel would have been required for the semi-final and probably the showpiece as well.
Instead, as the relieved and ever-chilled Schalk Burger admitted after the triumph in the Free State, his charges could now look forward to such recreational matters as "Father's Day and a couple of wines" before eventually regrouping for the Newlands semi on Saturday July 2.
Whoever they play - and the Crusaders will be their favoured opponents - it will be their second home semi-final in the competition on the trot, after they saw off the Waratahs 25-6 last year.
The initial phase of this season's event has probably ended as most shrewd pundits over the past few days would have fancied it to, with a pair of teams from each of the trio of SANZAR partners making the finals series cut.
This country's other representatives, albeit having to take the extra-game route, are the Sharks, who thrillingly ended the Bulls' two-year stranglehold on Super Rugby - Victor Matfield's side had also won it three times in four years - with a heart-stopping 26-23 win at Loftus in what predictably came to be a straight eliminator.
Not that the Durban franchise will be too spooked by being required to trek to Nelson to play the Crusaders in an effective quarter-final on Saturday: they had a kinder tournament draw than the Stormers this year and in certain respects will be fresher for the big challenge.
The Sharks, who finally put together a suitably stout and fiery big derby performance this year to deservedly edge out the Bulls, are sure to relish the opportunity to have prolonged their stay in the competition as cheeky underdogs - and even some New Zealanders, after viewing events at Loftus, will probably concur that they must have a puncher's chance at Trafalgar Park.
Friday sees the other playoff for a place in the semis against the Reds, featuring the Blues against the Waratahs in Auckland.
Certainly the Crusaders will remain favourites to advance against the team fairly likely to be led by Stefan Terblanche again, as Springbok captain John Smit only got a token 90 seconds off the bench at the death in Pretoria and John Plumtree is unlikely to alter his starting XV a great deal after their inspired showing.
Recent history only tips the scale further in the Cantabrians' favour: the Sharks last beat them in 2007, and that was by a solitary point in Durban (27-26) in the heartbreak season when the Sharks topped the log but lost the final to the Bulls 20-19 courtesy of Bryan Habana's last-gasp try.
Since then it has been four wins in succession for the Crusaders, including this season's meeting at neutral Twickenham (44-28), a champagne game of rugby where the Sharks did well to steal a losing bonus point for four tries.
They will probably steel themselves for Saturday's crunch by suspecting that the Crusaders may well have "peaked" in that encounter, and surely cannot be quite so slick and polished once more.
Meanwhile the Stormers can take stock for a few days, nurse some bruises and then get back into full swing for the semi.
Whether a fortnight will be enough to work a miracle cure on their inspiring No 8 Duane Vermeulen remains to be seen; after being highly influential on both attack and defence for 51 minutes, the big customer unusually went off on a stretcher - enough to suggest that whatever injury he sustained must have been reasonably serious.
Some consolation was Nick Koster entering the fray as replacement, scoring a try within two minutes, and generally playing with the sort of vigour and enterprise to suggest he could plug an emergency hole without too much angst.
The Stormers do need to revisit the drawing board to an extent - aspects of their game have gone off the boil, including their lineout and the unusual concession in Bloemfontein of four tries, despite crossing the whitewash four times themselves.
Peter Grant slotting back in again at No 10 so seamlessly was a major plus, however.
Last word for the Bulls: ultimately, they bowed out of this year’s tournament with honour and bravery, considering that several weeks ago they had looked a sorry mob with virtually no hope of staying in the title picture.
They simply left themselves too much to do in the run-in period, and their last three matches on the trot were all against teams – Waratahs, Stormers and then Sharks - who made it into the finals series.
Attention now turns to how swiftly they can rebuild as they bid farewell to a handful of Loftus legends ...
