Winning the South African Conference Shield in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship does matter, if not necessarily to the public, most certainly to the players and the coaches.
Ask the players and the coaches of the four South African franchises and they will tell you there is prestige in being the best team in South Africa, in terms of the all-South African derbies.
The Currie Cup, long ago a development and feeder competition to the URC, historically was the domestic measure of excellence and pedigree when it came to who was the best in the season.
As the sport has evolved, first through Super Rugby and now the URC, the Currie Cup provides a very different platform and serves a very different purpose, albeit an extremely important pathway into the URC and by extension the Investec Champions Cup and Challenge Cup knockout competitions.
In the absence of strength versus strength Currie Cup rugby from pre Super Rugby’s start in 1996, these double header, home and away, local derbies are a tournament within the URC league and should get the necessary acknowledgement.
The DHL Stormers have enjoyed a monopoly on the Conference Shield, having beaten the Vodacom Bulls in six of the eight league clashes over the past four seasons and had a similar dominance over the Sharks and Lions. The Stormers have also won the two play-off showdowns, the inaugural final and the quarter-final in the second season.
The Stormers coaching staff and players will be aware that a Lions victory gives them a temporary lead in the league standings as the two teams battle for a top eight place, but the Stormers have the luxury of playing their last four league matches in Cape Town.
This season was the first time in the league’s brief history that the Stormers have lost a match to each one of their three South African rivals. The Sharks beat the Stormers in Durban, the Bulls edged them 33-32 in Cape Town and the Lions were a converted try for the good in Johannesburg.
The Stormers, with last weekend’s clutch 19-16 win against the Bulls at Loftus in Pretoria, kept alive their Shield hopes and also gave their URC playoff prospects a boost.
The Stormers finished the six matches with three wins and three defeats, but in all three defeats they got a losing bonus point and in the case of the one point loss to the Bulls in Cape Town, they got two league points.
It means they can still win the South African Shield if the Lions beat the Sharks in Durban on Saturday; this despite currently being the lowest ranked South African team in the league table with six rounds to play.
The Sharks, the big improvers from last season, were stunned in Johannesburg a week ago in losing 38-14 to the Lions. It was a mauling with the score 38-0 with just two minutes to play.
It was a result few would have envisaged, given the Sharks a week earlier had scored four tries in a bonus point win against the Bulls at Loftus. Incredibly they won despite playing with 12 against 15 for 10 minutes in the latter part of the second half.
The Lions, winners against the Stormers and losers against the Bulls in Pretoria, have struggled for consistency and their only consistency has been their inconsistency. Lose one week and win the next, then lose again.
Their trend would indicate defeat to the Sharks in Durban, but their self-belief should be one of how it would be possible to lose to a team you blitzed a week earlier?
Only the Lions have those answers, but it would really ask more questions of their mental strength if they did lose.
Will they lose? I think so, because everything suggests that they don’t have the mental strength to lift for successive performances.
The Stormers coaching staff and players will be aware that a Lions victory gives them a temporary lead in the league standings as the two teams battle for a top eight place, but the Stormers have the luxury of playing their last four league matches in Cape Town.
The Cape-based squad will want a Lions win as that will mean a Stormers Shield win, while a Sharks win will translate into a first ever South African Conference Shield title for the men from KwaZulu-Natal.
This is the only URC match of the weekend. I am backing the Sharks to win and while the Bok coaching staff will take a keen interest in the match, they will be as zoned in on Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations crunch clash with France in Dublin. The Boks play the two nations on successive weekends on their November tour.
France have to win to still be fighting for the title in the final round. For the home team, victory will guarantee them the title for an unprecedented third successive season.
I can’t see France winning in Dublin, just like I can’t see the Lions roaring away from the comforts of their Ellis Park cage.
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