As the 2012 season draws to a close, with the business-end of three professional competitions nearing, it is worth taking a look at how WP Rugby has performed on the whole this year.
The year began with an unprecedented Vodacom Cup triumph for DHL WP, as John Dobson’s team – many of whom graduated to Vodacom Super Rugby and Absa Currie Cup level in 2012 – pulled off a perfect season by winning 10 from 10.
Not only was it DHL WP’s first-ever Vodacom Cup win – the title having eluded them since the tournament’s inception in 1998 – but they showed incredible spirit to win the final in dramatic circumstances in the last second of regulation time in Kimberley.
After the Vodacom Cup, the DHL Stormers secured yet another South African Conference title at Super Rugby level – the Cape side losing just two matches en route to topping the overall log too.
The Stormers beat the Bulls, Cheetahs and the Lions – both home and away – and shared the spoils with the Sharks, who, unfortunately, knocked the Stormers out of trophy contention in their hard-fought semifinal encounter in July.
Still, it was a memorable Super Rugby season for Allister Coetzee’s charges, with a sell-out crowd in the semifinal watching this young side – with four members of the pack still eligible for Under-21 rugby – very nearly make it all the way.
“If you compare those guys – in terms of their age and potential – no other pack in the competition can compare to ours,” said Coetzee after the Super Rugby season.
“For me, all the youngsters really stood out this season and they all showed an incredible amount of maturity – despite being without some key leaders at times during the season.
“If you think about it, the guys were on tour in Australasia at one point without Schalk Burger and Jean de Villiers – who were back home injured – and with other team leaders like Andries Bekker and Duane Vermeulen both out injured. But the youngsters still stood up and that’s thanks to the culture that we’ve cultivated in the Stormers squad this year.”
Speaking of youngsters, it has also been a success-filled year for Western Province at youth level – both at school and Under-19 and U21 level.
At schools level, WP tasted provincial success in three competitions in 2012 – remaining unbeaten in the LSEN Week (Learners with Special Education Needs), Grant Khomo Week (Under-16) and Academy Week (Under-18) tournaments.
At Under-13 level, the WP side lost the final match of the tournament to the Bulls, whilst the WP Craven Week (Under-18) side lost just once – to eventual winners, the Blue Bulls.
These players will hopefully, in the next few years, take the step up to senior level at some point for DHL WP, first via the WP Rugby Institute and then through the Under-19 and Under-21 sides.
The U19 team, made up of players from the WP Rugby Institute and under the coaching of Nazeem Adams, are on top of the log in the Under-19 Provincial Competition and look set to stay there ahead of the final round of league action this coming weekend (when they face the bottom of the log SWD Eagles). They have lost just twice this season – away on both occasions – and even beat the star-studded Blue Bulls team in Pretoria a few weeks ago.
The DHL WP U21s – under the coaching of John Dobson – also recorded a memorable away win over an SA Under-20 heavy Bulls U21 side. The WP U21s are in third place on the U21 Provincial Competition log and set for yet another semifinal appearance in this tournament, having last lifted the trophy in 2010.
They have lost just once on the road in 2012, in treacherous conditions in Durban, but their record this season – played 11, won 7 – is even more remarkable when one takes into account how many of their players have been playing senior rugby this season.
Scarra Ntubeni, Wilhelm van der Sluys, JP du Plessis, Damian de Allende and Pat Howard all began the season in the junior ranks, before moving up to the senior Currie Cup squad where each and every player made his presence felt ahead of this weekend’s final round of Absa Currie Cup league action.
The DHL WP side has it all to play for this Saturday – as they host the Toyota Free State Cheetahs in a must-win, ‘quarterfinal shootout’ against the Men from Bloemfontein as coach Coetzee gets ready to unleash hisfirst-choice Springboks on the 2012 Absa Currie Cup.
However, the influence of the younger players – up till now – should not be forgotten. In fact, it should be lauded. WP’s 42-6 win over the Vodacom Blue Bulls in September will not be forgotten in a hurry, but even more impressive than the scoreline was the average age (of 23) of the matchday squad at Newlands that day.
But the Currie Cup aside, elsewhere in the union three other WP teams have also already lifted silverware in 2012.
The WP Disa side won the SARU Sub-Union tournament yet again (beating Boland 25-20 in the final in mid-September) and the WP Women’s team won the SARU Women’s Inter-Provincial Championship Final against the Bulls on September 23.
The WP Amateurs, meanwhile, are just one win away from their second trophy of the season. Having already been crowned the Southern SARU Amateur Provincial Competition winners in August, they now just need to beat the Lions Amateurs (in two weeks’ time) to be declared the National Amateur champions.
It means WP Rugby have already picked up eight trophies this year, with four more – the Amateurs trophy, the Absa Currie Cup and the Under-19 and U21 Provincial titles – still up for grabs between now and the end of the month. No other team in SA can boast that record in 2012.
All this points to a great base for WP Rugby to work from ahead of next year’s Vodacom Super Rugby season (see the fixtures HERE), with some astute player signings having also been made with the eye on the future.
Top players like SA Under-20 lock Ruan Botha, Springbok prop Pat Cilliers and Super Rugby utility forwardMichael Rhodes will be playing their rugby in Cape Town from next year.
Three of the top performers at the 2012 Craven Week tournament in Port Elizabeth, flyhalves Pieter Jordaan (Free State) and Ryno Eksteen and No.8 Steven Meiring (both Blue Bulls), will also be making the move to the Western Cape in 2013 where they will be part of the WP Rugby Institute in Stellenbosch.
WP Rugby is in a healthy state at present… but the future looks even brighter.
DHL WP’s win/loss ratio across all professional competitions in 2012:
(Under-19, U21, Vodacom Cup, Super Rugby, Currie Cup)
58 matches played, 44 won – overall win percentage of 76%
