It has been just a little over a month since the start of the tests in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, and the completion of the midweek games, and a superficial glance at the results of the first weekend of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship have been spectacular.
Four wins from four, all South African sides doing well and getting victories - two solid wins away from home for the DHL Stormers and Vodacom Bulls and two home victories for the Hollywoodbets Sharks and 10Bet Lions.
Anyone following the URC knows full well that the full-house weekends don’t come that easy, and especially at the start of the competition where the opposition hasn’t had injury concerns, has had a proper off-season - as opposed to the disjointed season the SA teams have - and have had the best preparation they could organise for themselves.
So would it be wrong to say that playing the All Blacks, with all the challenges it brought, in the off-season has actually strengthened the SA sides and that their challenge should be stronger this season?
On face value it certainly seems so, and the competition is only a week old, so more evidence is needed, but the effect of having to prepare for a one-off game against the second best team in the world has certainly challenged local coaches.
Interestingly the side that played the best against the All Blacks struggled the most this weekend, as the Lions squeaked home against a young Leinster side and were expected to do better.
LIONS STRUGGLED BUT UNDERSTANDABLE
But that is understandable as well. The team with the most preparation to face the All Blacks, who trained against the Springbok team for two weeks, struggled to hit the same heights in week one of the URC.
Perhaps the expectation was too high, or perhaps it was simply trying to hit the same heights in week one was expecting a bit much.
But it is clear the three sides that faced the All Blacks early have had some sort of boost - most notably because they seem better “switched on” at this stage of the season than they normally would be.
Often sides struggle to get momentum early on, especially when on tour but the impressive win for both the Stormers and Bulls - both sides could have won by a lot more - shows that they are ready for the challenge this season.
HOPE AT THE SHARKS
Even the Sharks, who were walloped by the All Blacks, seem to have found their mojo - primarily because of a decision not to play a number of players who had niggles and have now recovered. There is a lot of hope in Durban and their opening win over the Ospreys will fuel that hope that JP Pietersen can see a resurgence for his side.
All of this is wonderful to see - as is the fact that the top six in the URC log is dominated by South African coaches, as Edinburgh (Sean Everitt) and Glasgow Warriors (Franco Smith) both recorded opening wins with their sides as well.
MOMENTUM CAN BE LOST
But anyone overjoyed by the opening weekend will know from previous competitions that things can change quickly. The Stormers had an opening run last season and then struggled when they got home.
The Bulls had lost seven in a row in all competitions and still recovered to make the URC final. Leinster were beaten 35-0 by the Stormers in last season’s opening round and came back to win the competition.
The key for South African franchises in this year’s competition will be to rotate wisely, use their resources well and ensure that there isn’t a mid-season slump. A cursory look at all four squads shows some losses, but a lot of mid-tier players being recruited to fuel that depth.
Players that are a URC level but not quite Springboks, or former Springboks are being recruited more to fill voids when that rotation needs to happen, and sides have become wiser to the challenges of playing in a 16 team competition.
That doesn’t mean that there won’t be challenges and coaches may get it wrong. The season seems to take care of that and there is the law of unintended consequences.
But planning for a one-off game in the off-season has not only challenged squads to think differently about how they manage players, but also the rest periods and the greater depth in their squads.
LATERAL THINKING WAS FORCED
The advantage of coming up against a steely opposition that tests your resolve more than anything in a game where only pride is on the line can have good or bad consequences, but on the evidence we have from the opening weekend, it seems that the South African sides have navigated it well.
And that can only be seen as a positive.
Too often we see negative consequences from the never-ending season loop that SA players find themselves in. Hopes of a global season are just talk at the moment, and World Rugby, despite expressing a profound desire to get there, never seems to be ready to take that step.
Broadly speaking South African rugby’s pipeline is very healthy and the move to Europe has given the Boks more local players to choose from, lured SA players back from overseas clubs and in part stopped the drain to overseas clubs that hurt teams in Super Rugby.
SUPER RUGBY HAS ITS OWN PROBLEMS
We have also seen that Super Rugby has its own problems, and isn’t the financial mastermind success that New Zealand and Australia proclaimed it to be when they took pot shots at South Africa.
But that is another debate altogether.
What is clear is that facing the All Blacks has forced some lateral thinking, some interesting squad moves and has given sides a lot to think about, and a lot to manage in what would otherwise be a quiet season.
It has certainly helped their start in the URC and where it will lead waits to be seen. But in a World Cup year, ensuring a good season for all four franchises is a priority, and we all know more daunting challenges will come.
But for now, despite the timing, the All Blacks games helped the franchises. They seem more switched on than in previous opening rounds.
We can only hope that confidence will turn into a momentum wave as the season goes on.