The seismic Rugby World Cup final was still a few hours away but on a breezy Saturday afternoon in Stellenbosh there was an indicator of how the ploys the Springboks used to retain their global champion status might filter down to other levels of the sport.
The DHL Stormers were hosting the Welsh club, Scarlets, at the Danie Craven Stadium in their second Vodacom United Rugby Championship match of the season. The Cape franchise was already comfortably ahead when a ball was kicked onto Clayton Blommetjies. The ball went to him on the full and Blommetjies called for a mark inside his 22. And then the Stormers indicated they wanted to scrum.
Such a move would have been unheard of a few weeks ago. But after Bok fullback Damian Willemse did it against France in the World Cup quarterfinal in Paris, it was inevitable someone would try it sooner or later. It turned out to be sooner, though the intent backfired on the Stormers, with the scrum being penalised.
IT WORKS THE OTHER WAY TOO
Will other ideas picked up from watching the World Cup be repeated during the course of the URC? Of course they will. But it works the other way too, and trends and innovations that come out of the URC over this next four year cycle are likely to have a big impact on what is delivered at the next World Cup in Australia in 2027.
The competition, with the South African participation making it a proper inter-hemisphere league, could also well drive a change to the sometimes tired old north versus south rivalries and debates that tend to direct the narrative of World Cups.
For a start, is South Africa still strictly a southern hemisphere rugby nation given the alignment with the northern hemisphere and their season that happened when the four top local franchises who used to compete in Super Rugby joined up with the old PRO14 to form the URC? Just two years in, it is possible to argue the change hasn’t really been felt yet, but in four years time this country would have been playing in the northern hemisphere for six seasons.
And while the World Cup ended in southern domination, with South Africa and New Zealand playing in the decider and Argentina also making the top four, the benefits of the cross-pollination of ideas that results from employing foreign coaches and players in the European leagues have been felt for a decade or more have undeniably closed what used to be a yawning chasm.
Not only has the gap between south and north been closed, with little to choose between South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland and France right now, the distinction between playing styles has also become a lot less marked.
France, who sometimes backed their flair and running game to their detriment, and the Welsh teams of the 1970s are obvious exceptions, but there was a time not long ago when you expected the other Six Nations teams to employ a game built around forward domination and pragmatic, tactical kicking rugby.
PLAYING IDENTITY BUILT AROUND PREVALENT CONDITIONS
It was an identity built around the conditions the players from the respective hemispheres were used to. Rugby being played as a winter sport in the United Kingdom and Europe did mean they were inhibited by the heavy fields and wet conditions that start to become the staple in the northern leagues from mid-November through to February or March.
The wheel started turning against that identity when southern hemisphere coaches started to proliferate in the north, both at international and club level. But while Kiwis, Australians and the odd South African coach had an impact at the clubs and provinces where the players learn their rugby and lay the platform for their international careers, what was missing from that tier was regular contact with southern opposition. And they weren’t being exposed to southern hemisphere conditions.
That’s where the URC comes in and why this coming cycle could accelerate the fusion of styles, approaches and cultures to the point that the boring old north versus south debate might become less relevant in real terms. It is just logical that needing to go to South Africa every season will force northern coaches to adapt approaches in the same way that someone like the DHL Stormers’ John Dobson is aware that his team’s attacking style has to be adjusted when they head north in mid-winter.
It is impossible to gauge just how much the regular exposure through the URC by Ireland players to southern hemisphere opposition and conditions may have helped them in their historic series win in New Zealand last year. After all, there’d been just one year of URC. But there could be a strong argument that Ireland’s ability to withstand the furious Springbok physicality in the big Pool B fixture in Paris was helped by exposure to South African teams in two seasons of the new regional/club competition.
By the time the next World Cup in Australia arrives though the South African and Irish teams would have been playing each other for six seasons. The Irish players coming through the system would have become used to traveling to South Africa at least once a season, which would be good preparation for them for the conditions and playing styles likely to be encountered in Australia. And they’d have played four games per season minimum against teams from this country.
It’s the same for Wales. After watching his team get thumped by the Stormers , Scarlets coach Dwayne Peel spoke about how his young players were new to South African conditions. He said that even his more experienced players weren’t yet fully used to what is required playing against the Vodacom Bulls at altitude at Loftus and in the Cape on a hot afternoon.
He said that in time they would get more used to it, and he is right. And that can only help Wales, and ditto the two other nations represented in the URC, and further accelerate the fusion effect between north and south that we could see over this cycle.
NORTHERN TEAMS ADOPTING SOUTHERN TEMPLATES
Glasgow are an example of a team that reacted quite profoundly to the new world they face now that South Africa is such a big part of the URC. It was their experience of losing to the dazzling counter-attacking offload game of the Stormers during the inaugural season that prompted the change of coach, with former Springbok attack coach Franco Smith taking over and bringing in an exciting playing style that has a strong Stormers look to it.
The quest to play a higher tempo and more entertaining style of rugby has prompted many Irish and British clubs to lay synthetic 4G pitches which take away the heavy underfoot conditions as a factor. Ulster played their first game on their new pitch at the Kingspan when they narrowly beat the Bulls in an entertaining game last Sunday.
The first two rounds provided tries in abundance and no lack of ambition from the teams. The Sharks had quite bizarrely become the most conservative South African team but with John Plumtree back in charge the Durbanites are set to evolve back to a faster and more expansive style, with more emphasis on retaining possession and providing entertainment.
Plumtree spoke about bringing a Super Rugby template, which gives further fuel to the argument that by 2027 the URC might have driven an inter-hemisphere synthesis that makes the divide between the north and south much less distinct.