If anyone’s happy about the Vodacom Super 14 final being a home game for a South African team this weekend, then it’s the British and Irish Lions, who’ve had the lowest profile possible as the entire country goes Bulls berserk. An 80-minute run around against a grandly named Vodacom Cup XV, away from the glare of Loftus, is perfect for the Lions; throw in the possibility of Earl Rose being in the Springbok 22, and Paul O’Connell’s squad should be in high spirits.

But if everything goes according to plan on Saturday afternoon, then South African spirits will be even higher, soaring on the wings of Super 14 success. The rest of the year might have been forgettable from a local perspective, but the collective South African sporting memory is notoriously short, and a win for the Bulls will make up for much of the miserable play produced by the Lions, Cheetahs and Stormers, and the late stumble that ruled the Sharks out of the final four.

It’s not a done deal by any means, though. Saturday’s opponents have consistently played the most absorbing rugby in the competition, and the transition from Kiwi journeymen to New Zealand’s top side has been highly entertaining to watch. The Chiefs have always had exciting runners — Roger Randle and Loki Crichton spring to mind — and the occasional star forward, such as Marty Holah, who would have been a star All Black had he not happened to arrive at the same time as Richie McCaw.

But the class of 2009 is a complete product; an industrious pack with some very large gentlemen (this is not a team that will be intimidated by the Bulls up front), and a lethal backline in which Mils Muliaina has underlined his class, and Ma’a Nonu has gone from precocious but headstrong talent to genuinely dangerous midfielder. If there is a team to beat the Bulls at Loftus, then it’s the Chiefs, and they’ll give it one hell of a go.

While they won’t be intimidated by the Bulls, however, they will face Super rugby’s most frenzied crowd — on Jacaranda FM on Thursday morning, a woman phoned in offering to divorce her husband if that’s what it took to win final tickets, and similar pledges have been flowing in all week. Pretoria’s rugby cathedral will be drenched in blue for another weekend, as the rest of the planet comes to a standstill for 80 minutes.

The crowd will be a factor, then, but not enough on its own to overcome the Chiefs; the Crusaders pushed the Bulls hard in an unrelenting semifinal that gave us a breathtaking display of rugby, and the Chiefs are even better equipped to challenge the Bulls. And with the Chiefs preparing to smother the Morne Steyn drop-goal machine as much as possible (they’ve been practicing human pyramids in training all week), it’ll take more than a touch of Jannie de Beer to secure another title.

It’ll also take the Bulls enduring a ferocious start from the Chiefs, who’ll follow the Crusaders’ plan of throwing everything at the home team in the opening twenty minutes, but the Bulls’ defence has been very impressive all season, and once the opening storm has blown out, the calm ruthlessness of a Bulls side far more dimensional than in previous seasons should slip into gear. At which point it gets very tough for the guys from Waikato.

A Bulls win will set the tone for the Lions series, irrespective of the performance of the Springboks against the Namibian team, and as brandy stocks diminish dangerously on Saturday night, the Lions will know that a country energised by Super 14 success awaits to cheer on the Springboks. Chiefs to run the Bulls close in a great game, then, but Bulls to take it, with a crucial drop goal or two not entirely out of the question. Which, if you remember how the last Lions series was sealed by Jeremy Guscott, might just be another good omen for South Africa.

  • Contact Dan at dan@metropolis.co.za


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