URC final the latest chapter in rivalry between Irish and South African rugby
MENTAL CHESS: Leinster and the Bulls spent the build-up to the URC final talking each other up. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
If ever there was an indication that Saturday’s decider will be played between the ears as much as it will be decided in the contact zone, it was the pre-match press conferences at Croke Park and the mental chess played between Leinster’s Leo Cullen and the Bulls’ Jake White.
After three seasons of upset knockout rounds and top seeds falling by the wayside, the URC finally has its strongest two teams from the regular season primed to go head to head in a potential blockbuster that further entrenches the burgeoning rivalry between Irish and South African rugby.
Except the protagonists have spent the past week playing down their respective strengths, or rather have concentrated on boosting their credentials of those in the opposite corner.
Jake White may have been able to name a team underpinned by 10 capped Springboks including an all-Test front row and a double World Cup winner in full-back Willie Le Roux but still managed to claim his team was a work in progress and yet to fulfil its potential after shooting down Cullen’s assertion he was in possession of a “juggernaut” outfit.
The wily World Cup-winning coach of 2007 was also quick to elevate Leinster to the benchmark status and cite Cullen’s matchday squad as consisting of “23 internationals”, though Tommy O’Brien’s Test debut is imminent with a Test debut surely coming this summer on Ireland’s two-match jaunt to Georgia and Portugal.
Nevertheless, you take his point that the Bulls will be facing a Leinster 23 blessed with 10 of the province’s 12 Lions selectees, as well as the imported superstar quality of Jordie Barrett, Rabah Slimani and RG Snyman.
Perhaps it is the absence of a quartet of internationals, including World Cup-winning wing Kurt-Lee Arendse, as well as prop Gerhard Steenekamp and back-rowers Elrigh Louw and Cameron Hanekom that had the Bulls boss minding his manners this week.
The loss of No.8 Hanekom in particular is a serious blow, injury striking the 23-year-old powerhouse in last week’s semi-final victory over South African rivals the Sharks. Marco van Staden, a World Cup squad member in 2023, moves off the bench to blindside flanker as Marcell Coetzee switches to No.8 with skipper Ruan Nortje the openside flanker.
White made light of the reshuffle at Croke Park on Thursday.
“It just means that I've spend more time on my knees this week, praying for rain,” he said, before addressing the introduction of van Staden to his loose forward trio.
“He’s a World Cup winner and that’s a great test for him, playing against Josh van der Flier. They’ve played Test match rugby against each other and like anything, when you move the deckchairs sometimes you get different options as well.
“There'll be things that we won't be as good at without Cameron but there will be things we will be much better at with a guy like Marcell at No.8 as well.
“I don't think it really makes any difference, in that Leinster will play how Leinster will play anyway and we’re going to have to be good enough to beat them, whether we had Cameron filling certain gaps or whether we’ve got a player that maybe doesn't have the same attributes. Who knows, maybe sometime the attributes that Marcell brings as a No.8, and the fact that he played for Ulster, and the fact that he understands the Irish way, maybe those are also things that we mustn't take for granted.”
Perhaps, though, it will all come down to pure desperation with the Bulls looking to avenge two finals defeats in the past three seasons and Leinster seeking to finally live up to top billing by landing their first trophy since defeating Munster in the last season of the PRO14 four years ago.
Leinster hooker Dan Sheehan said this week that no team was hungrier than Leinster, yet White believed such claims are folly.
“I think it's one of those with everyone really. When you get to a final everyone’s desperate to win. Anyone who gets to a final and says they’re not desperate to win would be naïve.
“I can only worry about what we want to do and we’ve had three chances now and this is our third chance and we will be desperate and whether it's as desperate or more desperate, I think it goes deeper than that.
“It's not just about the rugby or desperation, it’s about that little bit extra, and I think that's the challenge or the test we're all going to have, which one is going to be really desperate when everything's on the line.”
J O’Brien; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, J Barrett, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, J van der Flier, J Conan - captain
R Kelleher, J Boyle, R Slimani, RG Snyman, M Deegan, L McGrath, R Byrne, J Osborne
W le Roux; C Moodie, D Kriel, H Vorster, S de Klerk; J Goosen, E Papier; J-H Wessels, J Grobbelaar, W Louw; C Wiese, JF van Heerden; M van Staden, R Nortje - captain, M Coetzee
A van der Merwe, A Tshakweni, M Smith, J Kirsten, N Carr, Z Burger, K Johannes, D Williams
Andrea Piardi (Italy)
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