The Cell C Sharks have grown their depth but not enough for them to expect to beat the Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria with a second-string team, so the real winners in the final weekend of phase one of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship season were the reigning champions.
Not only were John Dobson’s DHL Stormers team the stand-out performers of the round of derby matches that ended seven weeks of action before the competition goes into a four-week hiatus for the November international window, they also end the phase as the best placed South African team on the log.
Yes, officially it is the Bulls who are third, just behind Ulster, and the Stormers who are fourth. The Bulls are also officially ahead on the Shield log. But you need to look at the fine print - they both have 24 points, and the Stormers have played one game fewer than the Bulls, six games against the Pretoria team’s seven.
The Bulls owe their lead to having won one more game, with the Stormers accumulating what was the equivalent of an extra win with their draw and then getting two bonus points from the only defeat they have suffered so far. But you’d expect the Stormers, who also have a 20-point points differential advantage on the Bulls, to win the game in hand, which is home against Scarlets in late November.
CHRISTMAS DERBY SHOOT-OUT COULD BE DECISIVE
There are a couple of home games against Welsh opposition for the South African teams to look forward to before they head into what could be a decisive phase in the battle for Shield supremacy, effectively a double round Christmas season shoot-out where the two coastal teams will host the two respective inland teams in Durban and Cape Town respectively.
If you look at it that way, the South African sides are certainly looking pretty when it comes to the battle for play-off and Champions Cup qualification than they were this time last year. The Bulls and the Stormers are in the top four, which was where they ended the previous season, and while the Sharks are eighth, they have two games in hand on the Bulls and one on the Stormers.
While there were doubtless some doom merchants coming out of their closets when the Sharks lost at Loftus on Sunday, you have to be realistic. The Bulls weren’t missing many players to Springbok call-ups and were pretty much at full strength, whereas the Sharks were without Makazole Mapimpi, the injured Lukhanyo Am, Jaden Hendrikse, Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth, Ox Nche and Bongi Mbonambi.
Those forwards in particular would have made a significant difference to the Durban team’s effort in the area where the game was lost had they been present. If there are Bulls fans who want to argue the point that the under-strength derbies create distortion, imagine for a moment what would happen to the Bulls if they sent an understrength team to Durban to play the Sharks at full strength. Derbies really shouldn’t be played understrength!
Rohan Janse van Rensburg, who has made a significant impact already in his time in Durban, should be back from suspension too when these teams next meet over the festive period. So while the Bulls have made a good recovery from the two-match losing slump they fell into overseas, they really did what was expected of them at Loftus. Had they lost at home to a Sharks team without so many star players they’d be in real trouble.
CAPE SIDE WON A GAME COACH WAS WORRIED ABOUT
The Stormers by contrast went to Johannesburg, which is always a difficult venue for them, without five top Springboks and won a game that coach Dobson always admitted he was worried about. Indeed, if the loss to Cardiff the previous week wasn’t factored in as a likelihood at the start fo the season, a loss at Emirates Airlines Park was always a strong possibility. So perhaps the one cancels out the other.
Dobson said on the eve of the match that he saw the game as a shoot-out that could go either way. And he said in the pre-match television interview that he wasn’t looking forward to it. He also said that he didn’t see a win as the be-all and end-all for his team, as he’d done his maths and looked at what was to come. Defeat wouldn’t be a train smash.
SA TEAMS SITTING PRETTY BY COMPARISON
He, like the other South African coaches, might in saying that also have factored in a comparison between where the teams are now in comparison to this time last year. After six games in the 2021/2022 season, the Stormers were in the last third of the log. They went on to win the competition.
The Bulls were second last, and they went on to play in the final. Even the Lions, who are now ninth and out of the top eight, are well placed if they can beat off the imposter status they appear to carry into their home games at Emirates Airlines Park and find the form they had in their winning overseas tour.
SWYS SUMMED UP LIONS’ PROBLEM
The Lions’ problem right now was well summed up by their former coach Swys de Bruin on Supersport’s Final Whistle analysis show on Sunday night: The Lions were pretty much at full strength and effectively lost because of the bench strength of a visiting team that was already missing their top players to Springbok duty.
What does that say about the Lions’ depth? And that is where Dobson can feel really good about the space he is in right now, for Ali Vermaak and Sazi Sandi are the third ranked props on their respective sides of the scrum and yet played a part in shifting the direction of the game. As for Nama Xaba, he is every bit as influential in the battle for the ball on the ground and other aspects of openside flank play as the irrepressible first choice Stormers No 6 Deon Fourie, who is away with the Boks.
DOBSON COULD FACE SELECTION HEADACHE
Dobson might in time find he faces a selection headache at openside, which isn’t something you’d have thought at the end of last season, and suddenly Xaba looks like the one glaring omission from the national squads announced late last week.
Dobson will go into the next phase feeling he has interchangeability in most positions. While there is a potential problem for him at flyhalf should Manie Libbok and Sacha Mngomezulu remain with the Boks for the game against England, which will be played on the same weekend as the Scarlets game, he had a great answer to that question: “We do need to give Kade Wolhuter a run sometime.”
Indeed they do, Wolhuter was one of Rassie Erasmus’ Poni (Players of national interest) players coming out of the lockdown period and is now over the impact of the injury that halted his impressive progress when he was just 19.
The Stormers don’t have the financial clout that the Sharks and the Bulls do but Dobson has recruited wisely and the disappearance of the administrative politics subsequent to SA Rugby taking over the running of the union has made the Stormers a happy environment for the youth coming through in the Western Cape to develop and flourish.
LEINSTER CONTINUE THEIR INEXORABLE MARCH
While the Stormers have the early edge in what looks like remaining a tightly contested Shield battle, Leinster continued what now looks like an inexorable march to another pole position on the final log. Their 35-5 away win with a weakened team against Scarlets underlined the impressive depth the Dublin team has at its disposal.
And with Ulster holding on to win against Munster’s late resurgence in their away derby in Limerick, it is the Irish who continue to do the front running at the top of the log. There isn’t much though between Ulster and the Bulls and Stormers and we are still waiting to hear if they might end up forfeiting points to the Sharks for the postponement of their scheduled game in Durban.
Edinburgh, who won with a weakened team away to Cardiff (admittedly the Welsh teams were also understrength due to Wales being in camp), are now the closest threat to the Irish and South African domination of the top part of the log.
Weekend Vodacom United Rugby Championship results
Glasgow Warriors 37 Benetton 0
Emirates Lions 22 DHL Stormers 31
Munster 14 Ulster 15
Dragons 47 Zebre 7
Ospreys 19 Connacht 22
Vodacom Bulls 40 Cell C Sharks 27
Cardiff 17 Edinburgh 25
Scarlets 5 Leinster 35
Next games for SA teams
DHL Stormers v Scarlets (Cape Town, 25 November, 19.00)
Vodacom Bulls v Ospreys (Pretoria, 26 November 15.00)
Emirates Lions v Dragons (Johannesburg, 27 November 16.00)
Cell C Sharks v Cardiff (Durban, 27 November 18.10)