When the United Rugby Championship’s first final turned out to be an all-South African affair, chief executive Martin Anayi described it as “a dream come true”. Really? How many TV viewers were there north of the equator that afternoon in June? Maybe a few from Ulster, who needed to exorcise the memory of two painfully narrow defeats by the Stormers? Perhaps some from Leinster, still curious after the Bulls’ sensational win at the RDS the previous week.
But who else was watching a final being played in a city 12,000 or 13,000km away? Work was my reason. And it was hard work, watching a grim old tussle played in poor conditions. The only memorable images were of the Stormers’ celebrations afterwards. They were joyous, riotous.
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