The inaugural United Rugby Championship final is an all-South African affair, which was a seemingly impossible idea not long ago.
It is fitting that a large dollop of mythology has been used to describe Saturday’s United Rugby Championship final between the Stormers and the Bulls at DHL Stadium in Cape Town. These are, after all, the two most successful provinces in the history of South African rugby and their rise to the summit of the URC is almost superhuman.
“It was dark,” Stormers coach John Dobson said in reference to the union’s woes. Top players left and the WP Rugby Football Union was placed under administration after a leadership collapse. It’s no exaggeration to say it was in a death spiral. “It was a really tough time at the start of the season. I love Western Province rugby. I didn’t want to see it break down, but we were perilously close to what happened to the Southern Kings .
“Then we went on tour and realised, hang on, there is something we can do here. I think some of the South African teams went on that first UK tour and came back with massive doubts, but we organically just grew as a team and came back as a much tighter group.”The Stormers have beaten the Bulls twice in the group stages this year, but finals are an entity all of their own and previous form counts for little.
The breakdown contest will be immense with Bulls skipper Marcell Coetzee up against Stormers openside Deon Fourie, in his 100The Bulls team is coming off an impressive 27-26 semi-final victory at a physical Leinster in Dublin last week. They can expect more of the same physicality from a Stormers team who had six of the eight members of their forward pack — that started last week against Ulster — called up to the most recent Springbok squad.
“A final stays a final and we have to perform like you will in any final. We won’t put pressure on ourselves because of history,” added Botha. “It just shows you we can win away in playoffs, that gives us a lot of confidence. Going into this week, against the Stormers, it’s going to be a different animal completely. They’re a quality outfit, they’ve been consistent in their performances the whole season, they’re playing at home.”
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