News24.com | URC: Mind the gap... Stormers' SA superiority only deepening

Herschel Jantjies and Marcel Theunissen

News24 Sport chief writer

• The Bulls' agonising loss to bogey team the Stormers at Loftus has stripped most of the tension from the SA Shield race.
• With a 13-point lead over the Bulls and only four rounds left, John Dobson's team would need a severe slump to surrender it.
• Greater intrigue may now surround whether the Sharks can leapfrog the Bulls into second-best status for the Shield.

Retention of the South African Shield – a more meaningful domestic honour to bag nowadays than an ever more watered-down Currie Cup – for 2022/23 is almost a fait accompli for the sprightly Stormers.

Following their rousing, successive away URC derby wins over fellow heavyweights the Sharks and Bulls, John Dobson's outfit have opened a virtually unassailable lead over nearest challengers in the four-team SA group.

Saturday's gutsy and cool-headed 23-19 victory over the Bulls, before a baying Loftus crowd of more than 41,000, not only extended the Pretoria side’s hoodoo in the tournament to five matches against their arch-rivals, but made it highly unlikely the Capetonians will be caught for the Shield.

The Bulls held the aces for generous portions of the full-blooded derby, but their guests kept winning the really key moments; the classical mark of a quality side and defending URC champions.

Former Loftus icons were, significantly, effusive in their praise of the Stormers' triumph afterwards.

"It shows the class in the Stormers team (that they could win) … after being under so much early pressure," noted most-capped Springbok Victor Matfield in the SuperSport studio.

Colleague Akona Ndungane, also a decorated Bulls player, concurred: "It was a show of character … they made two vital late steals even when Deon Fourie (later named player of the match) had left the field.

"They wanted it, even though the Bulls really needed it more than the Stormers did."

The visitors left with four log points, while the Bulls earned the consolation of a well-merited losing bonus point.

Had that 4-1 log points split gone the other way around on the day – many pundits understandably felt beforehand that it might, given the hosts being nearer fullest strength – the SA Shield would still be looking a little more open.

In that scenario, the Stormers would have ended the weekend with 51 points and the Bulls 44, leaving a slightly more realistic prospect of the Bulls still hauling them in with four rounds left for each team.

Instead, the Cape side jumped to 54 … a formidable, seemingly insurmountable 13-point gap over their highveld foes in second on the Shield table (Stormers remain a firm second overall, Bulls sixth).

The respective wins at Kings Park and Loftus this month have gone a very long way to ensuring that the Stormers keep the Shield, despite both fixtures having looked like potential banana peels beforehand.

If you were a Bulls fan believing in miracles, you could argue that their run-in is slightly easier on paper than the Stormers' one -- yet the fact remains that both have three home games left and one away, so no special advantage to either crops up in that regard.

While the Bulls must face the Lions (home), Ulster (away), bottom-placed Zebre (home) and Leinster (home), the Stormers tackle Sharks (home), Leinster (away), Munster (home) and Benetton (home).

It will require an implosion of some magnitude for the Stormers to be caught, so the likelier aspect of intrigue from here will be whether the Sharks – three points behind Ruan Nortje’s team, but with a game in hand – can knock the Bulls off second on the Shield log.

Signs are strong that the Shield will be settled both by a wider margin and much earlier than was the case in the maiden 2021/22 season of the URC.

Then, the Stormers still had a bit to do in the very last round (of 18) to ensure they grabbed it: both the Bulls and Sharks had played a day earlier and the Durban side were one point ahead of them and the Bulls two.

But the Stormers had sufficient composure to earn a bonus-point victory away to the Scarlets (26-21), although it had been 21-21 until Ruhan Nel's 79th-minute game-winning try.

The coming weekend is effectively a bye one in the competition as the Six Nations resumes in Europe, although there are two previously postponed games taking place, both involving South African elements.

This week's fixtures (home teams first, kick-offs SA time):

Saturday: Sharks v Ulster, 14:00; Lions v Glasgow, 16:10.

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing