The Lions won big in the United Rugby Championship (URC) on Friday night — without playing. Ulster’s 26-22 home defeat to Glasgow ensured the hosts (52 points) could not overtake the Lions (53 points) in a congested final top eight.
The Lions, at the time of writing, had yet to play Munster in Limerick in the late game, but they’d have played knowing a first-ever URC playoff place was secure. They’d have been playing to determine if they finish fifth or eighth, which dramatically changes the playoff landscape for them.
A fifth-place finish would see them play the Bulls (fourth place) at Loftus, while eighth place would mean a trip to Glasgow.
This weekend’s round 18 had something on offer for everyone of the nine teams competing for the final eight positions.
Home-ground advantage
Glasgow, the Stormers and Leinster had already qualified for the playoffs after round 17, and their matches would determine the playoff fate of two opponents and the league positioning.
All three were also playing for home-ground advantage, should they progress beyond home quarterfinals.
Here, Glasgow and Leinster showed their championship qualities, while the Stormers fell horribly short of making a title-winning statement.
Glasgow beat a desperate Ulster in Belfast, but the Stormers could find little desperation to match that of a Cardiff team that had to win to make the playoffs.
I’ve long held the belief that if the Stormers could not go to Belfast and Cardiff and get results, they’d not be winning any semifinal outside of South Africa
Cardiff missed out on the playoffs by one league point a season ago, and the hurt of that failure added to their motivation.
The Stormers were woeful and played with the immaturity of a group content to finish third and host a quarterfinal in Cape Town.
Eight successive league wins to start the URC season set the Stormers up for a cruise into the back end of the season, but they have run out of ideas, puffed, and, in Cardiff, had an appetite to turn set piece dominance into a match-winning result.
Coach disappointed
Cardiff must be applauded for their desperation, desire and fight, but the biggest insult any coach can give his players is to publicly concede that the opposition showed greater desperation than his own players.
Stormers coach John Dobson, as bemused by the performance as he was disappointed, was as lost as his players in making sense of a performance that carries so much influence on the road to travel in the playoffs.
I’ve long held the belief that if the Stormers could not go to Belfast and Cardiff and get results, they’d not be winning any semifinal outside of South Africa. That belief strengthened on Friday night. They will win their quarterfinal at home, but they won’t be going beyond any semifinal.
The Bulls, on form and with a winning habit, represent South Africa’s best title option, but the odds are now weighted in favour of Leinster defending their title.
The only other realistic alternative is that Glasgow, who finished top of the table, win a final at Murrayfield, in Edinburgh.
Stormers generally poor
The Stormers, with just four wins in their last 10 league matches, generally have been poor. The exceptions were a win in Pretoria, where the desperation of the north vs south derby was powerful, and a win in Cape Town a fortnight ago when they dismantled Glasgow 48-12.
Outside of these two matches, they’ve never looked like title contenders in the past three months, with their league position inflated because of the record-breaking first two months of the year.
The Stormers finished with 12 wins, which is consistent with what they’ve achieved in four of their five campaigns. They still have not beaten Ulster in Belfast, and they have lost all three visits to the Arms Park against Cardiff.
It is not good enough, and right now they’re not good enough to win the title.
Pre-season I backed the Stormers to finish fifth, so some would view a third-place finish as an overachievement.
The counter to this is that after creating so much in early league results, they delivered so little in the end.
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