Why Munster victory only increases URC's intensity next season
The Vodacom United Rugby Championship final was played at the right venue as the competition continues its outreach into Africa but Munster taking the trophy home to Ireland might be good for the tournament going forward.
DHL Stormers fans might not agree, and neither should they, for a home win would have been a great boost for the region and kept the Cape team’s impressive momentum built up over a period of two years where, in terms of on field success, they’ve gone from rags to riches.
But the Stormers did win the trophy last year, so that is no longer a barrier that is needing crossing for the Cape team. Sometimes you need to lose a final to complete your rugby education and make you stronger, and in time that is how Stormers coach John Dobson is sure to look at it.
The images of Munster, Ireland and British and Irish Lions veterans Peter O’Mahony and Keith Earls in tears as they embraced each other as the emotion flooded out of them following their heroic 19-14 win in front of 56 000 fans that broke a 12 year trophy drought, portrayed the kind of drama and emotion that gives a competition traction.
It also showed how much the URC trophy means to the Munster players, and when they arrive back in Limerick they will see how much it means to their fans as big celebrations are being planned for their return.
The drama and the emotion and the elation that Munster coach Graham Rowntree admitted he felt was a great advert for a competition which before the arrival of the South African teams was often considered not competitive enough and too predictable. Leinster were dominant and won four titles in a row in the last years it was known as the Guinness PRO14. The lack of a proper challenge from within Ireland was muting the edge to the intense rivalry between the Irish teams.
But that has changed now, with Leinster coaches, players and fans no doubt being given extra motivation to give the URC a full go next season after watching their arch-rivals celebrate a triumph that was set up by their win over Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in the Dublin semifinal.
Before the Cape Town final you had to go back to the 2015/2016 season, when Connacht shocked the rugby world by beating Leinster in the Murrayfield final, to when any Irish team other than Leinster had last lifted any meaningful trophy.
That has now changed, and following the fuss made in the Irish media about Munster fans attending the Heineken Champions Cup final at the Aviva dressed as LaRochelle supporters in solidarity with their former flyhalf Ronan O’Gara, who now coaches the victorious French team, the Irish rivalry is spiking. It could be intensified further after a season where Munster, who for so long had been second best, won an important trophy while Leinster ended the season with nothing other than the Irish Shield.
Maybe it didn’t require a Munster win as such for this to be so, but the fact this year saw a proper cross-hemisphere final, as opposed to the all South African event that it was the previous season, should also give extra legs to the competition in the sense that it has started what in time could be a big rivalry between the winners and the team that ended second.
The next time the two finalists meet the memories of what happened in the final and also in the league game a few weeks earlier will still be fresh enough to stir up big interest in the game, which will be at Munster’s home ground of Thomond Park. The Stormers will be reminded then that Munster remains the only URC team they haven’t beaten.
Just as the overseas teams are now starting to become proper identities for South African fans, so it is happening the other way around, with Rowntree showing a lot of respect to the Stormers and to his opposing coach after the final.
“It took a huge effort from us as we were up against a great team led by a really great coach,” said Rowntree, who added that the addition of the South African teams has significantly improved the quality of the competition.
With the Stormers and Ulster rivalry having already started to get intense after last year’s two narrow wins for the Stormers, first in the league game that some considered controversial and then in the semifinal where the Stormers won with a last gasp Manie Libbok conversion, the cross hemisphere rivalry is gaining momentum and was further helped by the Cape Town final.
Speaking of Cape Town, the visiting red army of Munster fans that were thanked by Rowntree and his players after the game were highly enthusiastic about the experience and their outpourings on social media will sell the trip to fans who might consider traveling to South Africa for future games.
With a new hybrid field set to be laid in the offseason to replace the one that attracted negative comment from all sides and turned a dry weather final into a wet weather game, DHL Stadium, with it’s spectacular Table Mountain backdrop, could become a big draw for overseas fans in the same way as Newlands cricket ground attracts English cricket fans in their thousands for the New Year Test matches.
Munster headed home having played six consecutive must win games to secure the trophy, with the start being their two games in South Africa where just making the Championship Cup qualification was top priority. All of those games were away from home and they did it the hard way, thus repeating the fairytale of 2022, when the Stormers won after being given no chance. It was almost the same story, just with a different winner this time.
They are deserved champions but Munster will now have a target on their backs, particularly when they play fellow Irish teams and particularly when they face Leinster.
With several other teams, such as Glasgow Warriors and even Scarlets towards the end of the league phase, fast improving and threatening to be better next year, the competition is going to become harder to win but that will make it more watchable and popular.
Source: URCSA
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments