There will be many South Africans disappointed at the Vodacom Bulls’ failure to join the DHL Stormers as local winners of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship trophy but there can be some consolation drawn from who it was that scripted the Glasgow Warriors win.
There was always some fear that the Bulls, having been so outstanding in beating Leinster in a semifinal many thought they had little chance of winning even though it was at Loftus, might have played their final a week early. And though the Bulls coach Jake White would have warned them of the pitfalls, it is hard to back up the effort and the depths of emotion it takes to get the better of a team like Leinster.
And that was what the Bulls needed to do. While no-one was ever going to place Glasgow in the same category as Leinster, they are a fine team. A fine team built by a South African coach in Franco Smith who knows at thing or two about playing at altitude, which supposedly gives the Bulls their biggest advantage against visiting teams.
FRANCO IS NOT ALONE
Let it be said too that Smith is one of several South African coaches who are adding depth to that role in the country and are taking away the fear some may have of what happens after Rassie Erasmus. Of course no-one would like the architect of two Springbok World Cup triumphs to vacate his position. Not any South Africans anyway, there may be a few embittered members of the overseas media who do.
But if for some reason Erasmus did leave there are alternatives, with the beaten coach in the final, White being one. The Bulls may have fallen at the final hurdle but White, in learning from his mistakes and rebuilding his team into one that went from a sixth on the log finish to second, and made the final, reaffirmed his status as one of the top rugby coaches in the world. Let’s not forget that the Bulls team that lost the final was without two key players in Willie le Roux and Canan Moodie.
After turning his team from perennial non-achievers into inaugural URC champions and now perennial challengers, Stormers coach John Dobson belongs in that bracket too. And then there are the other foreign based coaches, such as Bath’s Johann van Graan, who took his team to the Gallagher Premiership final for the first time in ages and they were unlucky to lose.
Johan Ackermann had already established his credentials by taking the Emirates Lions from nowhere to two successive Super Rugby finals before heading overseas. Ackermann hasn’t fallen off the planet, and he’s still doing good things in Japan, where he took his club team to promotion.
SMITH IS NO ONE-TRICK PONY
But back to Glasgow and Smith. Those who know the former Springbok centre and his rugby philosophy will tell you that there have been times he has almost bordered on being one of those running rugby romantic coaches who put attack before all else. There were apparently some robust debates with his fellow assistant coaches when he was part of the Bok setup under Allister Coetzee.
Here’s the thing about Smith though - while his love for the attacking game does come out crystal clear with Glasgow, and it was writ large in a pulsating, high tempo Loftus final that delivered everything a neutral watcher seeking entertainment would want, the pragmatic elements necessary for rugby success are there in abundance too.
The Glasgow scrum has fared better against opponents other than the Bulls and has a good reputation, but their mauling game has been the standout. The Scottish team scored nearly three times as many tries from driving mauls than most other teams in the URC during the league phase of the season and it was instrumental in bringing Glasgow back into the final after they’d conceded a 13-0 lead.
To me, that try scored on the stroke of halftime was the turning point of the URC decider. In many ways it was reminiscent of what happened in the first URC final between the Stormers and the Bulls in Cape Town two year ago. In that game the Bulls had the early ascendancy but they didn’t quite convert their dominance and the Stormers came back in the last 10 minutes of the half to come within touching distance of the Bulls.
I recall Joel Stransky, on duty for SuperSport as a commentator, being in strong disagreement when during the halftime interval I told him the game had changed and the Stormers were going to win. If Joel was nearby at the halfway point of this latest final, he’d have heard the same argument.
BULLS NOT A GOOD SECOND HALF TEAM
The Bulls looked spent, and while they did put in a great effort to turn the game at the death, and were millimetres away from what would have been an equalising try in the final move of the game, a scoreline of 21-3 in favour of Glasgow for the last 42 minutes of the game tells a story. The semifinal was an exception, but if you look back at many of the Bulls’ games, a pattern emerges - they aren’t a good second half team.
Glasgow, who fought back from an almost 30 point deficit to get a losing bonus point and a try scoring bonus point in the league game at Loftus would have known that. It nearly cost the Bulls against Benetton in the quarterfinal.
And even though they won comfortably on the scoreboard in their big north/south derby against the Stormers in March, it was the Cape team that was stronger after the Bulls’ dominance of the first 30 minutes and the Bulls had to rely on breakaway tries scored off the mistakes made by the team that was chasing to make it safe.
Altitude is a factor but it is not just reflected, as some may think it is, in visiting teams falling away in the last 20 minutes when they run out of gas. Teams that know how to manage their output in the initial stages of the game tend to be okay. Ask the All Blacks, who have boasted a good record in Johannesburg over the last decade and a bit and have often won the game late there, such as they did in Pretoria in 2018.
GLASGOW DESERVED WINNERS OF THE TROPHY
Smith was rightly lauded not just for the way he scripted the win in the final but also the away win over an in-form Munster team in Limerick in a tough semifinal. Until they came to the highveld and were beaten by both the Bulls and the Lions, Glasgow were consistently either first or second on the log.
Glasgow rallied really well last season, Smith’s first, after a slowish start, and would have finished higher than their eventual fifth on the log had the season had longer to go.
That Glasgow won the competition was not as much of a shock that some may couch it as. There is very little to choose between the top four teams in the URC, indeed you can stretch that to six teams. Ulster slipped a bit this season but they do have title winning potential and there is no denying the fifth placed Stormers do too.
Had they not conspired against themselves by missing kicks, they would have knocked Glasgow out in the quarterfinal at the Scotstoun. And they were significantly under-strength that day.
It makes for a great competition and if the Hollywoodbets Sharks join the party next season, which they should, there will be seven teams capable of lifting the trophy. That leaves the coaches and teams with little margin for error but makes for a great competition.
Vodacom United Rugby Championship Grand Final (Pretoria)
Vodacom Bulls 16 Glasgow Warriors 21