What we witnessed at Newlands on Saturday where the Stormers beat the Lions 19-17 was by no means the best advertisement of Super Rugby in South Africa.
Exciting yes, but not a good showcase for the sport in this country.
Not for the brand of rugby we’re trying to play as a nation, not for the level of officiating we are trying to get to and definitely not for the family show they are trying to advertise with the new SuperHero vibes.
Still, Stormers coach Robbie Fleck will be a relieved man today after replacement scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies dotted down for the match-winning in the dying seconds to beat the best team in recent South African Super Rugby history.
Lions fans, meanwhile, took to social media almost immediately after the final whistle was blown to “reward” former Stormers wing and referee for the day, Egon Seconds, with the “Man of the Match” award.
DESPERATE: Herschel Jantjies snuck over the line deep into extra time. PHOTO: BACKPAGEPIX.
Admittedly, Seconds didn’t have his best match to date.
He made some bad calls throughout the game and didn’t control it that well.
But he wasn’t the guy who won the match for the Capetonians.
Instead, it was their determination not to go down again that got Fleck’s side over the line in the Stormers’ first home game.
They played with a lot of passion - passion that turned nasty at times.
As much was evident by Eben Etzebeth’s foul language when he warned one of the Lions that he was going to “dance” with him.
Sies Eben, that’s definitely not the mouth of a superhero and definitely not the way you want to behave in front of kids watching their heroes in action.
Anyway, the Stormers were desperate in this encounter, especially in the second half, and wanted - and needed - the win more than their opponents.
As for Fleck, he has no reason to relax.
UNCONVINCING: Tendai Mtawarira and the Sharks were lucky against Blues. PHOTO: BACKPAGEPIX.
It wasn’t that the Stormers’ tactics were better than that of the Lions on the day.
Instead, you got the feeling that, whenever they were in an attacking position in the Lions’ red zone, they didn’t know what to do with the ball.
Every time the players ran out of ideas, we saw them trying little kicks in behind the defence or cross-kicks that went astray.
They lacked imagination and flair and that is the big work-on for the Stormers this campaign.
Another team that was perhaps a bit lucky to get away with a win this past weekend is the Sharks.
A look at the scoreboard (26-7) suggests that they beat the Blues quite easily in Durban on Saturday.
The Kiwis were in the match until the bitter end.
A poor start from the visitors saw the Sharks go into the break with a 19-0 lead.
But the second half saw the Kiwis dominate and after scoring their first try, they had a try disallowed that would have closed the gap to just five points with successful conversion.
Even after that, they still pushed hard to claw back, but a Curwin Bosch intercept try at the death took the game away from them.
Another close encounter took place in Japan where the Sunwolves pushed the Waratahs all the way, before eventually going down 31-30.
CLOSE ONE: Sunwolves v Waratahs. PHOTO: KIYOSHI OTA/EPA.
What they proved was that they weren’t going to be the whipping boys of the competition on a weekly basis and if teams are going to visit them, they will have to “pitch up”.
Pitching up is exactly what the Aussie teams are doing this year and I’m loving it.
For years I suffered through watching Australian Super Rugby derbies.
But after the first two weeks of this year’s tournament, it looks like the Aussies are back - just ask the Chiefs, who were beaten 54-17 against all odds by the Brumbies on Saturday.
The first bit of evidence we witnessed of the gap closing between the Australia and the New Zealand teams was in Friday’s weekend opener between the Highlanders and the Reds.
We’ve become used to a weak Reds team in recent years and while the Highlanders have been a bit erratic, it was still expected that they would beat the Aussies relatively easy.
Leading 29-17 in the second half, it looked like the Highlanders were going to do just that.
But then the young Reds outfit hit back and had their noses in front (31-29) with seven minutes to go, before Highlanders flank Dillon Hunt scored a late try to break their hearts.
Meanwhile, the most disappointing team of the weekend was New Zealand’s Hurricanes.
Up against the Crusaders in Christchurch in what was undoubtedly the match of the weekend, the Canes simply didn’t take the field in the first half and went into the break trailing 24-0.
There was no way they could bounce back against the defending champions and despite having a better second half, they lost the match 38-22.