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Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White has made a brilliant point around South African fans attitudes to the United Rugby Championship four years on from the country’s split from Super Rugby.
Speaking ahead of his side’s URC final clash with Leinster in Dublin, White drew comparisons between the URC and Super Rugby, a competition he knows intimately from spells with the Brumbies and Sharks.
While he acknowledged differences in format and public perception, the 2007 World Cup-winning coach stressed that some things remain the regardless of the competition.
“I would say it would be exactly the same because in South Africa winning is part of what every franchise would want to do.
“I’m not talking from a standard point of view. People have had this debate whether Super Rugby is anything [compared] to URC.
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“The achievement of winning something when you’ve spent as many weeks as any team has in preparation for a game like this becomes as important as any other competition.
“Super Rugby is much shorter. This is a long drawn-out competition with EPCR thrown in between.
“My answer is very simple. Having coached in Super Rugby – I wasn’t lucky enough to win it but made it to a Final when I was at the Brumbies.
“It’s as big for any player playing in any tournament to win silverware at the end.
“That’s why the talks in the media all week were about Leinster saying that it’s serious because everyone wants to win some sort of silverware.”
On the topic of fan engagement, White was candid about South African supporters’ evolving relationship with the URC.
“One of the things that’s interesting and I’ve been around a long time, they [South African fans] didn’t buy into Super Rugby when we joined it either.
“They didn’t understand it. They didn’t know who the guys from Waikato [Chiefs] and Otago [Highlanders] were.
“And as time went on they got a better feel for how Super Rugby worked.”
The transition to URC has followed a similar path.
“In terms of URC, they’re still not sure how it all fits in.
White added: “I do think in time they now realise that it’s a phenomenal tournament and you’re seeing the best players in the world.
“It’s no different from when Super Rugby started to take off.
“They could see Christian Cullen playing for the Hurricanes and Jonah Lomu playing for the Blues.
“Let’s be fair, we’re playing Ireland tomorrow [Saturday]. It just so happens that they’re wearing a different colour jersey this weekend but we’re playing Ireland.
“And that’s probably why South Africans are tuned in because they know these players as Irish internationals.
“I’ve gotten some messages from back home. People are supporting the Bulls.
“People in Cape Town and Durban are supporting the Bulls. That’s like Munster supporting Leinster tomorrow [Saturday].
“That’s just what happens when rugby fever hits. They bought into it and it’s no different to how it happened in Super Rugby.
“It’s still not there and I must stress, we had the Cheetahs playing in Amsterdam in the Challenge Cup.
“The supporter who lives in Bloemfontein can’t figure out why his team is not playing at home but in Amsterdam.
“I do feel that it will happen in time and we need to win this tournament because it’s going to help our [South African] public take it even more seriously.”
