Jake White’s Vodacom Bulls and John Plumtree’s Hollywoodbets Sharks ensured that there will be a local team in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship final for the fourth successive year, but the performance of the weekend was produced by a team coached by another South African.
While the Bulls and the Sharks did just enough, the Sharks in particular probably going further than what their coach was thinking about when on the eve of their quarterfinal against Munster he said “any win will do, just as long as we win”.
Franco Smith’s Glasgow Warriors produced a statement performance in destroying the DHL Stormers at the start of the weekend.
Yes, the Stormers were woeful and off song. You can’t lose eight lineouts and miss at least 39 tackles and allow the opposition so much headway through your defensive line and expect to win. The Stormers never came close to winning.
Often when the Cape side loses there’s a bit of distortion to the final score, with the opposition drawing away late as the Stormers make mistakes in chasing the game.
That’s really what happened the last time Stormers were in Scotland, when they lost 38-6 to Edinburgh last October. But this wasn’t one of those games and this wasn’t a time when the winning margin flattered the winners.
Given their nine line breaks to just one in the first half, and the ground they made every time the likes of flyhalf Tom Jordan had ball in hand, it could easily have been a score equating to what happened to the Emirates Lions when they were at the Scotstoun a few months ago.
Remember that? 42-0. All those points coming in the first half. That scoreline actually flattered the Lions.
FRANCO IS A SPECIAL COACH
Glasgow can play. Yes, they lost to the Bulls subsequent to that to break their winning streak at home against South African teams, but that was while they were still in their post-Leinster hangover. Meaning recovering psychologically from their 52-0 defeat to Leinster in the Investec Champions Cup quarterfinal.
They’re out of that hangover now and Smith managed to do what he tends to do and what his counterpart John Dobson failed to do - he got them up to a different level at the start of the knock-outs to what they have been operating on. They played with furious intensity because this is the stage of the season when you do have to go up a level. Glasgow walked the walk.
Unfortunately the Stormers just proved really good in the buildup at talking the talk. Dobson certainly sold me on the confidence he appeared to have when on the eve of the game he said it was one his team should expect to win and he would be disappointed if they didn’t get over the line.
He has reason to be disappointed, but at the same time Glasgow did cook, and they will head to Dublin this weekend for their semifinal feeling they have a chance of making it into what would be a second successive final on South African soil.
Of course Leinster will start as favourites, but in the last two games, the first being the 13-5 win over Glasgow in the league phase, the log winners have looked just a little bit vulnerable. Could they spit the dummy again, as they tend to? It is possible.
Knowing Smith what is unlikely to happen is Glasgow failing to pitch. If there is a coach that deserves to be lauded for what he has done it is the former Springbok assistant Smith, who just oozes class and who doesn’t necessarily have a team of stars and yet somehow has taken them to a level where they have championship quality.
WINNING IN SUCH CRAZY CIRCUMSTANCES WAS GOOD FOR SHARKS
The Sharks might also have championship quality too. Their performance against Munster wasn’t necessarily good enough to send chills through White and his Bulls team ahead of what should be an epic semifinal in front of a full Loftus, but the manner in which they achieved it did.
In the first half it was the same old story for the Sharks. They played their third successive half without scoring a try. In fact, they never scored a point. But from around the 30 minute mark it was evident they were building themselves into their game and gaining momentum.
When they took the lead in the 54th minute it looked like they were taking control. But Munster, who certainly aren’t a team to be trifled with and any win over them is something to celebrate, struck back with two tries. With the visitors leading 21-10 with 16 minutes to go, it looked like that was the Sharks done.
And it would have turned out like that with some previous Sharks teams but not this one. They fought back to a point where they should have won in normal time and were denied only by an excellent pressure kick from Conor Murray. They were dominant in extra time and should have won it then too.
If Plumtree has a concern it was the time spent in the opposition red zone across the 100 minutes without coming away with points.
They will have to do better than that at Loftus, but there were undeniable signs that the Sharks’ attacking game is coming together now, and they will appreciate getting away from the Durban evening due to what should be perfect running conditions in Pretoria, where the altitude isn’t quite the same factor it is in the summer months.
Most of all though they will have been strengthened by how deep they had to dig, how keenly their temperament was tested, as they once again found a way to win.
This time in the most bizarre and unique of circumstances, with the big play of the game probably being Plumtree’s decision, inspired by JP Pietersen, to get young Bradley Davids onto the field in the last minute of normal time.
EBEN’S SHINER WAS SIGNATURE BATTLE SCAR
It meant the highly capable goalkicker could participate in the kick off, which featured six kicks from either side in what resembled a tennis tie-breaker. The Sharks will be better and stronger for the nerve-shattering experience they were put through and through how hard the game was. Eben Etzebeth’s shiner was the signature battle scar on the night.
And while they had to play 100 minutes, which is never a good thing seven days ahead of another playoff game, that is also territory they have negotiated before.
They played 100 minutes at Loftus in the Carling Currie Cup semifinal last September, and won a tight final against the Lions a week later. Don’t bet against history repeating itself.
BULLS’ SCRUM WILL BE KEY
That’s not to denigrate the Bulls, who did well once they had recovered from a poor start to win against Edinburgh with daylight on the scoreboard.
They too came through a litmus test of their temperament. When they were well down at one stage of the first half, where frankly they looked no better than the Stormers did the night before, it looked quite possible they were going to fall in this Finals Series at the very first hurdle.
That they got up was as much due to their signature, which is the dominant scrum that has developed since the arrival of Wilco Louw, as any other factor. It is what the Sharks, who were also good in the scrums against Munster, will have to confront as their first step towards winning the game.
There are not many scrums you’d back against the Bok laden Sharks unit, but the Bulls you would.
The Bulls and Sharks have provided some cracking games in recent times and they’ve usually been close. Saturday should be no different. But it is the Sharks who have the winning sequence against them that the Bulls have to break. There’s plenty for both teams to play for as Glasgow could well upset Leinster, who have never won a URC semifinal.
Leaving Kings Park on Saturday there was a sense from people bumped into in the car park that the dramatic finish to the game was a great way for the Sharks’ home season to end. But it might not be over. We could well be back there in two weeks hence…
RESULTS OF VODACOM UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTERFINALS
Glasgow Warriors 36 DHL Stormers 18
Vodacom Bulls 42 Edinburgh 33
Leinster 33 Scarlets 21
Hollywoodbets Sharks 24 Munster 24 (Sharks won on penalty shoot out)
URC Semifinals (both on Saturday, 7 June)
Leinster v Glasgow Warriors (Dublin, 3:45pm)
Vodacom Bulls v Hollywoodbets Sharks (Pretoria, 6:15pm)
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