Stormers restore respect with intoxicating win setting up mouthwatering Lions clash
The Stormers victory against the Chiefs was beautiful in a fantastic game of rugby. Chiefs captain Aaron Cruden and coach Dave Rennie admitted that when the disappointment of losing had settled they would celebrate their contribution to an occasion worthy of the tag “Super Rugby”.
The Chiefs scored one of the great team tries in the history of the competition, but it was the Stormers who played the big pressure points better.
The Stormers and Chiefs produced a match of compelling viewing. It simply had everything in physicality, drama and skill. More of these intoxicating match-ups will again make Super Rugby everything it was meant to be when launched around 12 of the southern hemisphere’s provincial powerhouses in 1996. The tournament expansion to Super 18 has not worked and in 2018 will comprise 15 teams. The Sunwolves and Jaguares stay. SA will lose two teams and Australia one.
Australia should have lost two as well, which could have meant a Pacific Islands presence. Australian professional rugby does not have the depth to provide four quality teams. They have one team in the Brumbies capable of competing.
SA has three very good teams in the Lions, Stormers and Sharks and the challenge is to ensure the fourth representative in 2018 provides similar comfort to the South African tournament challenge.
The Stormers, like the Lions in 2016, are playing the quality of rugby that has made New Zealand’s Super Rugby franchises consistently successful. The Sharks are progressing in their evolution that combines traditional physical strengths with an attacking mindset.
The Bulls are a mess and the Kings and Cheetahs have always lacked the playingsquad pedigree to be a play-off contender. What to do with the Bulls will be one of the big discussion points when determining the makeup of SA’s 2018 Super Rugby quartet.
The Stormers versus the Lions at Newlands on Saturday will be huge. It bodes well for the strength of the South African game and equally for Springbok prospects.
Super Rugby success is never a Springboks-winning guarantee, but the Lions, Stormers and Sharks have a playing pedigree and style that can only benefit the Springboks.
There can be a transfer of Super Rugby attacking philosophy to the Test arena.
The All Blacks are the obvious example that it is possible to play Test rugby as the very best play Super Rugby.
I picked the Stormers to beat the Chiefs because of the rugby they have played in 2017. I will take the liberty of speaking on behalf of every South African fan in thanking the Stormers for the try-scoring manner in which the win was fashioned.
The memory of the Stormers’ 60-21 defeat to the Chiefs less than a year ago is more palatable in light of the most recent 34-26 win.
The win restored respect and integrity for the Stormers in New Zealand. It also gives hope to SA Rugby.
I believe in the future of the game in SA and even more so because of the format changes to Super Rugby, which will benefit SA Rugby.
South African Rugby Union (Saru) CEO Jurie Roux’s frankness and clarity in detailing the necessity to change was also refreshing from a Saru leadership that for too long has done itself a disservice through silence.
Roux spoke with humility, authority and strength of character when he said it was a bitter pill to admit South African rugby did not have the playing resources to justify six quality Super Rugby teams.
But admit it they had to if they were to redress the imbalance that has savaged the all-round South African rugby playing resources.
The northern-hemisphere exodus meant more than 313 South Africans were playing professional rugby overseas, including 65 Springboks.
Roux reaffirmed financial sustainability and Springbok performance were Saru’s major strategic imperatives.
Structural changes in Super Rugby’s format is a start to addressing this financial sustainability. The type of rugby being played by the Lions, Stormers and Sharks is a platform from which to launch the restoration of the Springboks to a top-three global rugby-playing power and SA as a country in which rugby will further thrive with the hosting of the 2023 World Cup.