South African rugby puts on its best face this weekend for a double header derby weekend up north in the United Rugby Championship. It makes for a South African super Saturday, but it emphasises the demands of the league and why it is the toughest club league in the sport.
France’s Top 14 is the best domestic club competition in the world, but it is a domestic league played within the borders of France.
England’s Prem is strong but not as taxing or demanding as the Top 14. There are fewer teams, fewer games, and the travel, also within one country’s borders, is easier.
Japan’s League 1 is fast-paced and furious but lacks the physicality of European club rugby, and America’s domestic league is hyped but not in world club rugby’s first tier.
Super Rugby Pacific is fast but could be more furious. It is also pretty much played across the Tasman sea between Australia and New Zealand. Fiji, one of the 12 teams, provides a new territory. The Force’s presence in Perth means considering a seven-hour flight from Auckland and an even longer one from New Zealand’s south island. But a trip to Perth during the league stages is a one-off.
I am not factoring in the Investec Champions Cup when I talk leagues, because it is not a league competition but the best of the best in Europe who play in a knockout World Cup-type system.
Which brings me back to the URC, the club league with the most international country representation in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy and South Africa, with the most travel, with the most disrupted playing schedule, with two playing seasons of contrasts ― one in the south’s summer and the other being the north’s winter ― and an extraordinary amount of cross-border travel compared with other global leagues in the sport.
It is often said the URC is not a sprint but a marathon, but that would be too simple because in a marathon there is a known distance in which to measure one’s pace and build momentum.
Not so in the URC, whose league season has to accommodate the traditional playing times of the Six Nations, the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup competitions.
Momentum comes in short bursts in the URC, the sprint has momentary reward, the untimely breaks come with a playing memory loss for some, and it is easier said than done to be on a three-week break, play for a week or two, go back to a two-week break, then play for a month before switching attention to another competition.
The tribal battle brings out the mongrel in South Africa’s players. If there is a Saturday that screams passion in South African rugby, it is when Ellis Park and Loftus host the pretty boys from Cape Town and Durban.
This has been the biggest education for South Africa’s quartet of competing clubs. Previously, in Super Rugby, these clubs would undertake one tour of Australia and New Zealand per league season, and potentially play one match in Argentina, Japan or Singapore when the competition expanded to Super 15 to include a Japanese side.
The traditional Super 12 was a straight 11 league matches, top four make the semi-finals, and league winner or highest placed semi-final winner hosts the final.
It was an easy competition for the public to follow as it started in February and ran for four successive months. The international season followed. It was a structure that allowed a team to build momentum and find form without extended periods of rest or playing in another competition.
There is no going back to Super Rugby, which peaked when it was Super 12.
The URC is South African rugby’s present and future, but its toughness must be consistently reinforced to understand and appreciate what the players and coaches must overcome and negotiate en-route to silverware.
The Stormers will play their first match in nearly a month, then have a fortnight break while the Six Nations resumes until they play the Bulls in Pretoria on March 14. The Bulls are in a similar position.
Then it is two more weeks of the URC, into the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup last 16 and last eight in the first half of April, then back into the URC league phases for the final sprint towards making the June play-offs.
It was exhausting just typing this.
Which brings me to the delights of this weekend. It is that type of South African rugby Saturday that feels so old-school: north versus south, coastal versus inland. Stormers v Lions at Ellis Park and Sharks v Bulls at Loftus Versfeldt.
The tribal battle brings out the mongrel in South Africa’s players. If there is a Saturday that screams passion in South African rugby, it is when Ellis Park and Loftus host the pretty boys from Cape Town and Durban.
It will be brutal, but for us rugby tragics the beauty is in the brutality of such derbies.
I have the Bulls to win and the Stormers to win, but this call is based on historical results, not on form, momentum or any absolute belief that one team is better than the other. When it comes to South African derbies, form and perceived strength simply don’t factor into the equation.
Think of the URC as the Currie Cup at its fiercest, played three times in one season before even making the play-offs.
That summarises the toughness of the URC.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.