There are probably quite a few debates about the South African Shield component of the Vodacom URC - for a start how relevant is it, how seriously should it be taken and is the format used to establish a winner the correct one?
In the first two seasons of the URC, the Shield went to the local team that performed best in the entire competition. In other words, that ended highest on the overall log. The Stormers had their win in 2023 confirmed three rounds from the end of the season, when the second placed team fell 16 points behind and catching up was no longer a mathematical possibility.
Then it changed, and Stormers coach John Dobson, when told his team was still in with a chance in the Shield in the 2024 season even though the Bulls were a long way ahead of his side on the overall log, said that it would be nice to win the trophy for a third successive year but that it would feel a bit flat given the Bulls’ much better campaign overall.
That was because that year, as is the case now, only points accrued in derby matches counted towards the Shield. So theoretically you can finish some way behind other SA teams and still win the Shield because you beat the other sides when you played them.
The Sharks, currently in the lower reaches of the overall log, were on the cusp of winning the Shield two weeks ago based mainly around a win over the Bulls in Durban and two home and away wins against the Stormers.
SHIELD WIN DIDN’T SAVE PLUMTREE
The Sharks can also be cued when you are looking at the relevance of the Shield and how seriously it should be taken. The Durban team became the third team to win the Shield last season, but the man who guided them to that triumph, John Plumtree, has not survived as head coach. If the Sharks had won the URC and not the Shield, Plumtree would still be in his job.
There are answers to all the questions. Firstly, the Shield can be very relevant if you need it to be. When Jake White was asked after his team lost to the Stormers in Cape Town in 2022 to virtually concede the Shield to the Cape side how relevant the competition was, he responded that it should be very important to the Stormers as they or their alternative identity as Western Province hadn’t won a trophy in quite a while.
He was right, although the Stormers would have had a changed perspective a few weeks later when they went on to beat the Bulls in the competition Grand Final to win the overall competition. And having been Shield winners for a second successive time the following season would not have consoled them when they lost a close final to Munster.
A HUGE THING TO CELEBRATE FOR JOBURG TEAM
The Lions haven’t won a trophy in a while, so their win this past weekend over the Stormers to confirm their first Shield title, was a huge thing to celebrate. They were the whipping boys in the local derbies in the first few seasons, and winning the Shield confirms their progress.
And as the current log indicates, if you do win the number of derbies you need to win to annex the Shield, it can take care of your overall position. Although the Lions are only seventh overall, they are now only three points behind the Stormers in the challenge for a top four spot. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the Lions can do what the Stormers did in the inaugural URC season by going on after their Shield win to win the main trophy.
Two wins over the Sharks, one over the Stormers and one over the Bulls is nothing to scoff at given how intense and brutal the derby phase can be and the Lions, who don’t have the distraction of having any EPCR Challenge Cup knock-out games to play entering the last third of the URC season, have become realistic challengers.
FAIREST MEANS NOW TO ESTABLISH SA’S TOP TEAM
Plus, in reference to the third point about the format of the competition, it is actually now the fairest means to establish South Africa’s top union/franchise given how the status of the Currie Cup has waned. The oldest domestic competition in the world now exists mainly for the smaller unions, who get something to play for and a chance to have their day in the sun, like Griquas did last year.
Ironically the Lions have been the union that have most consistently taken the Currie Cup seriously in the two seasons where it has been played in what should really be SA’s off-season. On both occasions they fell agonisingly and tantalisingly short of their objective of getting their hands on silverware as the next step in their development, with both the Sharks (2024) and Griquas last year winning Ellis Park finals after the hooter.
The Lions now have their hands on that much needed silverware, and it should be significant to them given the more strength versus strength nature of the six game Shield competition in comparison to the Currie Cup, which is played at a time of year when the top players aren’t available.
SUPPLEMENTED BY OFF-FIELD PROGRESS
The Lions’ long awaited upward trend on the performance graph has been accompanied by off-field progress that is an endorsement of a system that has often been criticised.
As Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus put it at a press briefing at the start of the week, Johannesburg isn’t necessarily the drawcard for players it might have been at the end of the amateur era when players were lured by the city’s status as the country’s economic hub. There are other franchises that are in more attractive areas to live and which are financially stronger.
And yet the earlier trend of the Johannesburg franchise exporting players, mostly to the Sharks, appears to have been reversed, and in addition to the major signing of Springbok prop Boan Venter from Edinburgh, every second day there appear to be announcements from the Lions’ communication department on contract extensions.
It was clear for a long time what the Lions were trying to do. They were trying to ape what worked for them from immediately post the John Mitchell coaching stint when the Lions built through continuity, meaning continuity not just in selection but also in the teams that participated in the two competitions, which was the Currie Cup and in those days Super Rugby.
But the flaw was that they weren’t keeping the promising young players they were bringing through, so their emphasis on a youth policy was falling short. What for, for instance, was the point of developing the Tshituka brothers if they were going to end up at the Sharks?
But their star fullback Quan Horn, who was being coveted by the Bulls and the Sharks, decided to remain loyal to the Lions where in the past he might have moved, and other players have followed suit: His fellow Boks Ruan Venter, Asenathi Ntlabakanye and Morne van den Berg, while it has just been announced that the promising duo of winger Kelly Mpeku and centre Bronson Mills have signed to stay on until 2029.
That helps facilitate long term planning, and of course the Lions also won the tug of war over the services of the formidable SA under-20 flanker Batho Hlekani, while World Junior Player of the Year for 2025, scrumhalf Hashim Pead, is staying on even though he plays behind a Bok in Van den Berg at the Lions.
Right now the Lions need to switch focus to chasing down the top four teams, something they can do if they reproduce their form of the games against the Sharks and Stormers on a consistent basis during their coming run of home games.
But they can afford to take some satisfaction in a job well done in the derby phase of the season and use it as a platform for future challenges like they used the 2015 Currie Cup win as a basis for three successive appearances in Super Rugby finals.