The night Newlands turned 'Blou'

For a while it was almost possible to imagine you could hear strands of Steve Hofmeyer’s Bulls anthem ringing out from one of the suites and filtering out across the darkened Newlands field – “Blou, blou, blou…”

Yes, they were celebrating at Newlands on Saturday night, and they celebrated long into the evening. The celebrations started at around 7 pm, when the Stormers/Sharks game ended, and they gained intensity as the Bulls ran all over the Reds to clinch a second Super 14 semifinal for South Africa.

I have just trolled through the internet in search of flights to Durban. They were plentiful before the weekend, suddenly they have become a lot more expensive. And when I checked on the Cape Town/Joburg leg, I found the same thing. Yip, there are flights to be had, but the cheap ones have mostly been sold out.

Is it true, to coin that old cliché, that all roads lead to Loftus and to Durban this weekend? It probably is, for suddenly the old tribal rivalries and divisions, the old petty jealousies, appear to have been swept away. Swept away on a tide of emotion and patriotism.

At Newlands the home team’s catch phrase for the season was “We are all Stormers”. On Saturday evening it seemed they all became Sharks, and then they all became Bulls.

And it was not just in Cape Town. As the Bulls gathered momentum at Loftus, my cell-phone SMS system came alive. Friends in Durban were enjoying the rout as much as the inhabitants of Pretoria would have been, and we should ignore the cynics who might suggest that this was because they were only too happy to see their team avoid the rampant Bulls.

Sharks coach Dick Muir said earlier in the season that he had found himself doing what he thought was almost unthinkable by supporting the Bulls in some of their overseas games. It seems it has become a trend. Newlands should have become a sad place on Saturday night, and it would have in the past after the Stormers had been so comprehensively outplayed.

But success in the Super 14 has been such a rare thing. So rare that winning the thing has never actually happened. It may happen though this time, for both South African teams in the semifinals will feel the full weight of South African support behind them. And on the evidence of their recent form, both have an excellent chance of success.

Of course, if the two sides get through to the final, it will all change the week after next. Then it will become like a Currie Cup match, and everyone will have to be either a Bull or a Shark – a choice will have to be made. As always when those two teams meet, it is likely to be bruising, there will be a lot of niggle. The two camps won’t be polite to each other in the buildup, and maybe not even afterwards either.

In fact, if you think about it, maybe in some ways Jake White should be hoping that only one of the two teams makes it to the final. He has to draw those players together for a test match against England just a week after the Super 14 decider, and it might not be an easy task if they are part of different warring factions.

There again, he probably sees the benefits, and if you look at the psychological aspect, the benefits are overwhelmingly in favour of having an all-South African final. New Zealand critics are blaming All Black coach Graham Henry for aiding the South African turn-around, and they may be right. The absence of the All Blacks in the early rounds did lead to some results which helped lift the South African psyche.

All the South African teams with the exception of the Cheetahs managed to win at least one game on the road, and several of those victories were scored in New Zealand. Some, such as the Sharks' win over the Blues in Albany, came in really big games. This had to have a positive knock-on effect for all South African players, not just those playing, but also those watching.

When you see a fellow South African beating a New Zealand team with star All Blacks in it, you must become emboldened. Suddenly the Richie McCaws and the Daniel Carters don’t look quite so invincible.

But there have been other factors at work too. Primary among these is the fact that both the Sharks and the Bulls are teams that have matured, their key components are made up of players who have been there and done that in this competition a good couple of times.

The Bulls pack, for instance, have now been together a couple of years. And winning three games overseas has clearly made them feel they are invincible at Loftus.

Let it be said too though that the Bulls are also making pleasing adjustments to their game. The Todd Louden influence was criticised in the early weeks, but that criticism was premature. The Bulls should never be foolish enough to embrace Barbarians rugby, but they have started to inject flair and there is a better balance now between forward dominated rugby and use of the backs than there was at the Pretoria franchise.

This can only translate into a positive for South African rugby, and in a World Cup year, all these factors which are combining to create a positive cannot have been better timed.