It is the United Rugby Championship (URC) Grand Final once again and the inaugural champions, the Stormers, will be defending their title against Irish powerhouse Munster in front of a record sold-out crowd at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday evening (6.30pm).
It has been another fantastic season for South Africa’s best performing franchise and they will be looking to seal a second consecutive title in the rebranded competition.
Their road to the final was filled with twists and turn, but they have remained resolute in their belief that they can back up their stunning first season by retaining their title.
This is how John Dobson and his men got to today’s final.
It started with Connacht and ended with Connacht
Perhaps, fittingly, the Stormers’ road to the final started with a win over Ireland’s least threatening side, Connacht, and ended with them beating them in the semi-finals to make it to the final.
The 38-15 win in Stellenbosch at the start of the season was a game highlighted by the red card to Connacht centre Bundee Aki, due to a terrible clean out that essentially wrecked wing Seabelo Senatla’s season, with him out for most of the campaign.
Senatla, however, battled back from that injury to get himself fit and playing ahead of the knockouts, only to be involved in a car accident that ruled him out of the rest of the season.
The Stormers would go on to surprisingly host a home semi-final, thanks to Connacht’s massive upset win over Ulster in the quarter-finals, and despite a valiant fight from the underdogs, they were overwhelmed 43-25 in the end.
Overseas struggles
The Stormers’ one blip from a top season was their struggles on their overseas tours yet again, after most SA franchises battled with the travel factor during their first season in the competition.
In a pool phase where the Stormers won 12 games, drew two and lost four to finish third on the log, eight of their wins came at home against one loss, while on the road they won four, lost three and drew two for a mixed bag of results.
They began their opening overseas tour with a relatively soft ball game against URC whipping boys Zebre who they beat 37-20 in Italy to get off to a good start.
But that was as good as it got as they followed that up with a 16-all draw with Ospreys, who would finish the season 13th on the log, and a 30-24 loss against Cardiff, who finished 10th, to end off a miserable tour.
The Stormers’ second overseas tour would see them go down 24-17 to Glasgow Warriors and 35-5 against Ulster, while their one-off overseas game late in the competition against eventual table toppers, Leinster, ended in a 22-all draw, and that against their ‘B’ team.
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Dominance over South African sides
The Stormers’ dominance over their fellow South African franchises was once again prevalent as they claimed a clean sweep of wins in their six derby games.
It is an incredible feat, after they had already impressed in their first season in the URC, where they only lost once against the Lions, drew against the Sharks, and won the rest.
To follow that up by beating all three of their local rivals home and away is a brilliant effort and one that will be hard to top going forward.
In all over two seasons, including knockout games, the Stormers hold a record of 12 wins, one draw and one loss against the other SA franchises, showing their impressive dominance, particularly against arguably their fiercest rivals, the Bulls, who they have beaten six times on the trot, including in last season’s final and this seasons quarter-final.
It is Munster once again
The Stormers have only failed to beat one team in the URC to date, and that is their final opponents on Saturday, Ireland’s Munster.
In their inaugural season in the URC the Stormers’ second ever match was away against Munster in Limerick, with them losing 34-18, but it was their 26-24 loss, while hosting them in Cape Town last month that ended a 16-month home winning run that shocked everyone.
It wasn’t the Stormers best game by a long shot, and had flyhalf Manie Libbok at least had his kicking boots on they might have even snuck a win, but what the result did prove is that Munster has what it takes to beat the champs in South Africa.
The final is thus all set up to be a cracker and in front of a full house of around 55,000 supporters it is expected to be one for the ages.
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