URC WRAP: Stormers have created leeway to chase Champs Cup

Note to the Vodacom United Rugby Championship organisers: If you are still thinking of scheduling derby matches between the DHL Stormers and Vodacom Bulls as back to back fixtures, as was initially the case this season, shelve those thoughts.

This past weekend’s brutal derby in Cape Town was supposed to be the return fixture between the teams, with the initial schedule having the Stormers going to Loftus two days after Christmas before the two sides moved to the DHL Stadium for the return fixture.

The two franchises, like the Hollywoodbets Sharks and the Lions, who were also supposed to go back to back in their derbies, decided to shift the Christmas games, with the Bulls now hosting the Stormers in the return north/south derby on 14 March.

Local players aren’t crazy about playing at this time of the year, which is summer holiday season in South Africa (northern players wouldn’t want to play in mid-August) but the issue of the back to back concept isn’t about that - after the two sides who played in front of nearly 55 000 people at DHL Stadiums smashed themselves almost into submission it is, as Stormers coach John Dobson put it, more of a player welfare issue.

“Can you imagine playing this game again next week?” That was Dobson to his captain Salmaan Moerat after being asked the question at the post-match press conference. Moerat shook his head and admitted that the physical expenditure in the game made him shudder at the thought of the two teams playing each other twice in the space of seven days.

BRUTAL PHYSICALITY

The brutal physicality of two teams that contested everything and were all over each other defensively was the overriding narrative of a game that elicited an understandable division of views.

The physicality and the intensity of the first half was test match level or beyond, but it was almost as if the two teams had battered each other into submission, with the Bulls more so because the Stormers were physically superior after halftime, because in the second half it was a poor game.

Those who take another line and overlook the many stoppages that slowed everything almost to a standstill during a second half that until the last 10 minutes, when the Stormers laid siege to the Bulls’ line and were pressing for the win, felt like a lull, need to look at the facts.

There were 30 penalties across the 80 minutes, which admittedly was not helped by a lamentable refereeing performance, and 23 handling errors. Sorry, on no planet can it be argued that amounts to a quality game. Enthralling perhaps. Absorbing because it was so close. But not a quality contest.

BULLS MADE DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT TO DEFENCE

What we did see was the Bulls making a dramatic improvement to their defence, which you might argue was always going to happen against the team they most want to beat. Their coach Johan Ackermann afterwards lauded his team’s fight. Again, if there is ever a game against the Stormers where the Bulls don’t fight tooth and nail it would be a surprise.

The game turned out exactly as it should have been expected to. There were some who thought the Stormers would win by more, but in Cape Town the north/south derbies are invariably close, and you can check the supersport.com preview for the weekend for confirmation that the result wasn’t a surprise to this scribe - I made it a five point win for the Stormers.

With Munster having been well beaten by Ulster the night before, the Stormers were set to be leading the log after the game regardless of the result, and the result means they now have some leeway. They top the log by two points from Glasgow Warriors, but have a game in hand on the Scottish team, and they are now six ahead of Munster. Ulster, who have played the same number of games, are emerging as a threat, as they are five points adrift and their big win over their Irish rivals was a statement performance.

But what the Stormers have now is some leeway, with Dobson admitting that even if the Bulls had gotten over the line as winners in Cape Town, it would not have been a train smash for his team. When you win eight in eight, you create some degree of comfort, and that should enable the Stormers to go for broke in both the two Investec Champions Cup games that come next.

DOBSON TO MIX UP FOR QUINS BUT GOING FOR THE WIN

The Stormers will mix up their selections for Sunday’s game against Harlequins because they host Leicester Tigers, who made their own statement with a good win over Saracens in the English Premiership at the weekend, just six days later. But Dobson says that doesn’t mean he’s not going for the win, and he means it when he says that.

The Stormers won both their two Champions Cup games in December and have a real opportunity of going where no South African team has been before by going into the round of 16 with the good seeding that could make it possible to clinch what would be a lucrative home quarterfinal.

For the Bulls the loss was their sixth in a row and it was pleasing to hear Ackermann say he will be going full strength in both remaining European group games in order to build some momentum. At full strength and with some momentum, the Bulls will be a handful to any opponent, the team just needs time to gel.

What the Bulls do need though is to go on a winning run when they do return to URC action with a trip to Edinburgh on 23 January or any hope of a top four finish will be gone. It may already be gone, with the Pretoria team now depending on two of the six teams currently grouped together challenging for a top four place imploding.

RIGHT NOW LIONS LEAD THE REST OF SA’S CHALLENGE

One of those could well be Cardiff, who lost again at the weekend, but right now it is the Lions who look stronger challengers for both a top four, which means home ground advantage in the playoffs, and top eight (Champions Cup qualification), than both the Bulls and the Sharks.

The Lions started the season poorly and did lose to the Stormers just before Christmas but generally their performances have been on an upward trend. They could easily have left Cape Town with a draw. Apart from beating Ulster just before the international break at the end of October, the Lions have now won two tough away derbies, with the Sharks now joining the Bulls as victims.

They were helped by ridiculously poor game management from the Sharks, who should have kicked the penalties that would have put them out of reach of Hashiem Pead’s winning try off the last move of the game, as well as some passive defence at the start that allowed the Joburg team to go 15-0 up.

But there is also no denying that when the Lions get it together they are a dangerous team and their fall away in the middle stages of the Durban game can be attributed at least partly to the red card that saw them down to 14 men during that period.

A STEP BACKWARDS FOR THE SHARKS

After winning two in a row across two competitions, the result was a step backwards for the Sharks, who now find themselves 14th on the log heading into the break for the Champions Cup game. Their coach JP Pietersen will be hoping that even if they don’t make it through the group phase of that competition, they will produce performances that will give them some semblance of momentum when they return to URC action with back to back derbies against the Stormers, starting with the game in Cape Town on 24 January.

Back to back? Yep, they play each other twice in the space of seven days. A bit crazy, isn’t it?

WEEKEND VODACOM URC RESULTS

Dragons 28 Scarlets 5

Ospreys 33 Cardiff Rugby 22

Ulster 28 Munster 3

Hollywoodbets Sharks 22 Emirates Lions 23

DHL Stormers 13 Vodacom Bulls 8

Benetton 14 Edinburgh 15

Leinster 52 Connacht 17

Glasgow Warriors 47 Zebre 10

STANDINGS: 1. Stormers 36 points after 8 games; 2. Glasgow 34 after 9; 3. Ulster 31 after 8; 4. Cardiff Rugby 31 after 9; 5. Leinster 30 after 9; 6. Munster 30 after 9; 7. Lions 21 after 8; 8. Benetton 19 after 9; 10. Edinburgh 17 after 10; 11. 16 after 8; 12. Connacht 16 after 8; 13. Dragons 16 after 9; 14. Hollywoodbets Sharks 14 after 8; 15. Zebre 11 after 9; 16. Scarlets 9 after 8.