If you want to delve into history there’s a long list of examples in South African rugby of an emotional farewell to a favourite player going wrong.
Straight off the top of the head, Transvaal’s farewell to one of that union’s favourite sons in the first year of unity, 1992, springs to mind. By losing the Currie Cup final to Natal, the captain, Jannie Breedt, didn’t get the send-off that would have been fitting. Coming to think of it, it was the Transvaal coach, Harry Viljoen’s, farewell too, and those who were there will remember that game as much for the pomp and ceremony beforehand as for what happened on the field.
Seven years later, the boot was on the other foot as the legendary Sharks coach, the late Ian McIntosh, joined stalwarts Andre Joubert and Gary Teichmann in saying farewell on a losing note in a Durban final against a Transvaal team that had by then morphed into becoming the Golden Lions and was coached by former All Black coach Laurie Mains.
But you don’t really have to go back that far for examples of why farewell day can also be “Pear-Shape Day”. The fact the Cell C Sharks failed to meet their objective in their final Vodacom United Rugby Championship league game less than two weeks ago wasn’t down to it being a farewell for Thomas du Toit and Siya Kolisi, something the franchise sold the game on.
Instead it was down to them fluffing their lines in the second half. Tactical and other elementary errors crept into their game and it saw them blow a 19-3 halftime advantage and surrender their chance of ending higher on the log and in the Heineken Champions Cup placings. But still, if you are one of those who is superstitious, the fact that Kolisi’s injury put a further calamitous perspective on a game which ended in a draw won’t help your mood if you happen to be a DHL Stormers supporter.
STILL HOPEFUL THIS MIGHT NOT BE THE FINAL CURTAIN
The Cape franchise doesn’t appear to be doing the same thing with their captain, Steven Kitshoff, as the Sharks did a fortnight ago. Perhaps that is because they are still hopeful that there will be machinations during the quarterfinal phase this weekend that will conspire to deliver a home semifinal the following weekend.
If that happens, in other words if the Stormers beat the Bulls and either Connacht knock out Ulster or the Sharks do the same to Leinster, then this Saturday won’t be the home farewell game of the Springbok, who happens to also be the franchise’s most-capped player. The following week will.
However, the likelihood is that this is goodbye. The chances of the Sharks beating Leinster, which would mean a potential home coastal semifinal derby for the Stormers, or Connacht winning in Belfast, which would make a Stormers v Glasgow/Munster semifinal a possibility, are remote to say the least.
The Stormers gave Warrick Gelant, who wasn’t at the franchise nearly as long as Kitshoff but was probably their star player of the 2021/2022 season, a fitting send-off last year by winning the inaugural URC final against the Vodacom Bulls. On Saturday they’d like to do the same for Kitshoff, although this DHL Stadium game is a quarterfinal and not a decider.
However, as became clear when star back Damian Willemse was asked the question, the Stormers aren’t going to allow themselves to be distracted by the farewell aspect of Saturday’s game. For they know that could mean they join that list of teams who have turned the melancholic emotion of a farewell into a different kind of emotion. They don’t want to feel the despair that will come with faltering at this hurdle, so Willemse says they are focused on the win first and foremost.
“Everyone is well aware that this could be Kitsie’s last game at home and we know what a big player he has been at the franchise,” said Willemse.
“We have massive respect for him, and yes, we want to do it for him. We want to put in a huge performance, one that will make both us and our supporters proud, but the first priority is just to get the win. That is the focus. We are very focused on getting the stuff right that we need to get right in order to win this quarterfinal.”
FIRST CAPE CAPTAIN TO LIFT INTERNATIONAL TROPHY
Kitshoff, who captained the Stormers to victory in last year’s URC and thus became the first captain at the franchise to lift an international club/regional trophy, is a player the Stormers are going to find hard to replace. And he has a vitally important role to play against the Bulls, not just as the team leader but also in his primary scrumming role, as a ball carrier and in helping the equally talismanic Deon Fourie thwart the opposition at the breakdown.
Now 31, meaning he was born in the same year as the Currie Cup final mentioned at the start where Breedt’s send-off was ruined by defeat, Kitshoff had already been playing for Western Province and the Stormers for a while when he played for the South African under-20 team that won the Junior World Championship in 2012.
Indeed, the product of Paul Roos Gymnasium made his debut for WP in 2011, as well as his Stormers debut. So but for a two-season break where he played for Bordeaux, and amassed 34 caps for the French team, Kitshoff has been on a 13-year odyssey with the Stormers. And mention of that previous stint in France does open another possibility - he is still young enough for a prop to return to the Stormers/WP for another goodbye after his Ulster career is over.
For now though Saturday’s game does look likely to be his goodbye to DHL Stadium for the time being, and his leadership will play a big part in ensuring that he will say farewell in a manner that is fitting. As the winning captain in a home URC quarterfinal against the Bulls.