The first South African derby of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship season provided a reminder of how the intensity and interest can lift when local teams are playing each other and also an indication of the depth that the world champion Springboks have available to them.
There was an appearance of a scrappy game in Durban, and it is true that the DHL Stormers in particular conspired against themselves with their inability to capitalise on the many opportunities they created for themselves against a Hollywoodbets Sharks team that defended tigerishly.
But then those who know how humid Hollywoodbets Kings Park can be at this time of the year, and how difficult it is to play attacking rugby with a slippery ball, and add to that the two aggressive defensive systems, might agree that both teams made a good fist of it.
They mixed in some moments of sublime skill and strong running among the physicality that is customary in a South African derby. It wasn’t far below test match level.
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, who is now the frontline Bok fullback, walked away with yet another man of the match award and deservedly so, but it was some of the fringe players in Rassie Erasmus’ Bok system that made the biggest statements. For instance, there isn’t an international tighthead that springs to mind as someone who can make life difficult for Ox Nche, but the Stormers’ Neethling Fouche did that in Durban.
WORLD CHAMPS BEING CHALLENGED IS GREAT FOR SA RUGBY
Of course, the scrum isn’t as individual a discipline as is sometimes made out when the media spins its narrative. Nche’s failure to make an impression may have been rooted in the fact that Bongi Mbonambi, rated by Eben Etzebeth as the best scrumming hooker in the world, wasn’t alongside him. The Stormers’ Joseph Dweba, who falls short in some disciplines, is a strong scrumming hooker, possibly the next best locally based to Mbonambi in that specific area of the game.
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But that we have a situation where world champions are challenged when local teams clash is a great advert for the sport at the next level down from the Boks in this country. Fouche is an outstanding prop and would probably walk into most other international teams, but in this country he is probably ranked fourth or fifth on the tighthead pecking order. He is behind Frans Malherbe at his franchise.
Not that Fouche was the only player on the fringes of Bok selection looking in that made a statement in the Sharks/Stormers thriller. Ben-Jason Dixon showed us in that game why Erasmus and John Dobson both liken him to World Rugby Player of the Year Pieter Steph du Toit. His opposite number Vincent Tshituka was limited mainly to a defensive role but he wasn’t half bad either. And then there were the two young wins who will later become centres - Ethan Hooker of the Sharks and Suleiman Hartzenberg for the Stormers. Big futures beckon for both.
BULLS WERE THE BIG WINNERS
The immediate futures of their teams, and the two other South African sides in the competition, may depend heavily on what happens in the derby phase of the URC that clicks in over the festive season and then into the early months of next year. It is arguably between now and 8 March, when the last local derby will be played, that the dreams and hopes of the four competing South African sides will be realised or dashed.
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The Vodacom Bulls, because they were playing away at a difficult overseas venue in Connacht, were the big winners locally this past weekend. The Emirates Lions dropped the ball in contrast to their trans-Jukskei rivals, as there was a golden opportunity for them to end the South African duck at Munster’s Thomond Park home ground that they didn’t take.
It was their second consecutive defeat and their next chance of arresting that, after the break over the next two weekends for the EPCR competitions, will be when they travel to Cape Town on 21 December. DHL Stadium is a fortress for the Stormers, and while they lost to the Sharks, they showed enough in Durban to confirm that they do remain a very good team.
The Bulls are going to be challenged on that same weekend when they go to Kings Park to face the Sharks. That’s going to be a game as seismic as this past weekend’s was. And then three days after Christmas the Sharks head to Cape Town for what should be a return coastal derby of high appeal for fans given what transpired this past weekend, with the Stormers being denied what would have been a stunning match winning try after the hooter by the TMO.
DURBAN CHANGED A TREND
Just lately the impression has been created that while South Africans may be Bok befok, to coin a local slang term that can roughly be translated in this instance into smitten or enamoured, they are not so rugby befok. Not all the URC games played so far on SA soil this season have been that well attended.
And until the Durban game, it was Cape Town that was the standout venue, with 30 000 watching the Stormers beat Munster back in October. But that was changed by the Kings Park derby, with a big crowd at the game and an electric atmosphere pervading. It should have whet the appetite for what is to come.
The overseas clubs go into an extended derby phase later in December too, and with derbies often being levellers, some favoured teams might well see their challenges for top four or top eight spots being hurt. It could bring a team like the Stormers, who are currently languishing, back into the mix. But then there’s no guarantee they will win their derbies either, even the ones at home.
After they play the Stormers, the Lions will be on a collision course with the Sharks and then the Bulls, then the Stormers will be visiting them in Johannesburg. It’s a similar story for the other teams - the derby phase will be intense not just because it pits players who know each other so well against each other, but also because of what is on the line. The derbies will make and break campaigns.
Weekend Vodacom United Rugby Championship results
Glasgow Warriors 17 Scarlets 15
Ulster 20 Leinster 27
Hollywoodbets Sharks 21 DHL Stormers 15
Cardiff 31 Dragons 13
Connacht 14 Vodacom Bulls 28
Munster 17 Emirates Lions 10
Edinburgh 50 Benetton 33
Zebre 22 Ospreys 17