Earlier this year, Gary Gold — Springbok assistant coach, and one of the more astute rugby brains on the planet (check out Gary's coaching blog here) — was in Argentina, and went to watch Boca Juniors play River Plate, one of sport's definitive clashes.

It was an electric affair, the fans lighting what is far more than a simple football match, and the experience was incredible. And yet, as Gary told me on Saturday as we arrived at the Absa Currie Cup Final, the Golden One couldn't help thinking: These guys should see Loftus.

There are bigger stadiums on the sporting planet, temples to the game that are newer, more polished, and have a greater history. And in South Africa alone, rugby offers some of the game's great stadia: the sprawling car parks around King's Park, haze of braai smoke building hours before kick-off; the history and tradition of Newlands, an old school behemoth of a ground beneath Table Mountain; Vodacom Park, a ground that seems to accommodate all of Bloemfontein when a match of consequence hits the Free State.

But there's something about Loftus that places it in its own class, and largely, I think, it comes down to the fans.

I flew up with Jonathan Kaplan on Saturday morning from Cape Town (who was still talking to me, despite our interview earlier in the week on Jacaranda, East Coast Radio and Heart FM), and he reckons there's a more fevered intensity to a Currie Cup Final at Loftus than any other game; you simply had to be in the general area of Pretoria's cathedral of rugby on Saturday to know that there isn't anything in the game that can compete. Which leads to the fans...

The Free Staters were out in force, splashes of orange appearing in sufficient numbers to evoke visions of the 12th of July in Belfast, and after a splendid showing in Durban a fortnight earlier, Cheetahs fans came armed with a justifiable level of self-belief. But the blue army was always going to dominate: from the moment the final whistle had gone in Cape Town two weeks prior, Pretoria had been working itself into an increasing frenzy, and by matchday the city was beside itself with excitement.

And so from early on Saturday, all roads led slowly, bakkie-to-bakkie to Loftus, the demure fans in jerseys and Bulls caps, the more devout of them painted in blue, sporting horned helmets and assorted blue accessories.

The Bulls rugby fan is not, by definition, a lithe, athletic figure, but when a Currie Cup Final comes to town, modesty disappears, and proud bellies are emblazoned in home colours. The Heart Foundation might view the Loftus congregation with disapproval, but the sports fan can only marvel at the pure, unswerving devotion to the Bulls cause that runs so thickly through the jacaranda city, and comes to the fore magnificently on days like Saturday.

If the build-up is mesmerising, however, actually getting into Loftus and feeling the passion that charges the stadium, is spine tingling. Roaring blue hordes, flags waving, baying for the arrival of a team worshipped like few others: the Bulls in a Currie Cup Final, still the definitive rugby competition for many South African fans, is an experience you simply have to have once in your lifetime. And when the chorus of unrestrained delights rises as Victor Matfield leads his team onto the field, the goose pimples read like large font Braille across the skin.

The game itself was riveting, the Cheetahs initially dominant but punished by the type of breakaway more usually associated with the Cheetahs themselves. The comeback was briefly threatened, quietening the home masses until the Loftus sound system casually kicked in with Kurt Darren's 'Kaptein', immediately reviving the locals and restoring them to full voice, and ultimately the Free Staters couldn't repeat the miracle of 2005, sending an entire city into a night of delirium when Kaplan blew his whistle for the final time.

They're still celebrating in Pretoria two days later, players and fans; for the neutral sports fan, the enduring result of Saturday is a dizzying reminder of quite what a uniquely wonderful theatre Loftus becomes for a Currie Cup Final.

As the fireworks burnt out and the crowds spilled into the streets to celebrate, and a glorious day of South African rugby came to a close, you could only smile in admiration: for all the vast bellies and garish outfits and complete Bulls infatuation, you'd be hard pressed to find a crowd so deserving of a team's success as Pretoria's horned army.

Contact Dan at dan@metropolis.co.za

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