Cape Town ‘derby’ forged by a dramatic history

The appearance that many people seem to think Christchurch is a suburb of Cape Town lends a derby flavour to any Newlands clash between the Stormers and Crusaders, but there is a bit more than that to the edge that exists between the two teams.

The record of head to head clashes tells a story that makes you wonder why a match between a side that have been multiple champions and one that has never lifted the trophy should capture the imagination. There have been 20 matches between the two teams, the Stormers have won just four of them. There has been one draw, and the Crusaders have been on the winning side on 15 occasions.

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The points difference is also a landslide in favour of the Crusaders. They’ve accumulated 555 points across those 20 matches against the Stormers’ 393. You can work it out - the average score is pretty close to 28 - 18. Not really a close match.

AN EXPERIENCE OUTSIDE OF THE FORTRESS COMFORT ZONE

There have though been periods, and games, that have delivered some epic tussles, and then there is also the small matter for the Stormers that their home clashes against the Crusaders have on occasion seen them experience things that took them out of what should be considered their Newlands fortress comfort zone.

“I think the whole Cape Crusaders issue started in the 2011 season, when we played our league game against them,” recalls former Stormers captain Jean de Villiers.

“That was quite an experience at our home ground. We arrived at Newlands in our bus and we were booed and jeered. It wasn’t the usual welcome we were used to.”

No it wasn’t, and any team being jeered and verbally abused is not acceptable. There were reports in the local media the next day too of spectators getting overly heated up by the rivalry and being abusive to each other on the Newlands terraces too.

That aside, when the lid is kept on the emotions, the derby atmosphere generated around a Stormers/Crusaders game is a good thing if you consider the waning interest and on-day attendances at all Super Rugby venues.

It was a point I made in an SMS conversation with the then Stormers CEO Rob Wagner the week after that league match. I was in Durban for the Crusaders’ next game against the Sharks. There was no crowd to meet the Crusaders bus, there was no atmosphere at the game remotely rivalling that in Cape Town. The whole Newlands experience, unpleasant though it may have been for some, was far more memorable.

MEMORABLE GAMES

The games were pretty memorable too. Those were the years, in the transition between the first decade of this century and the second, when the Rassie Erasmus influence at the Stormers was strong, and they had some epic showdowns with the team from Christchurch.

One of those was the game in question. It was a close, tense game, with both teams hitting the contest with what could be described with a brutal test match intensity. There wasn’t much in it at the final whistle of a game that was nip and tuck most of the way, with the decisive moments in favour of the Crusaders coming from their star midfield combination - it was a Sonny Bill Williams offload (who else?) that set up their first try, and then his centre partner did most of the running for the second that put the visitors six points ahead.

The Crusaders won 20-14 but the Stormers had been unlucky on occasions and it was enough reason to make the Cape side favourites when the Crusaders visited a second time that season, this time for the semifinal.

IT WASN’T A ‘BEAUTIFUL DAY’ FOR STORMERS

The Stormers had been better in the regular season than the Crusaders, which was why they had a home final - they finished second to the Reds on the overall log - and also there was a long history of Australasian teams failing in play-off games played in South Africa. Well, with one exception - the Highlanders had come to Newlands in the 1999 semifinal and ruined the Men in Black party.

Perhaps my own recall of that game was strong for my newspaper column on the morning of the match was both prophetic and pessimistic for Stormers fans. “You know the U2 song ‘It’s a beautiful day’? Keep it on hand tomorrow. It might be one of those Sundays where you need reminding that life is bigger than the rugby field and that there is a beautiful world out there.”

The Crusaders proved that lightening can indeed strike in the same place twice. The atmosphere was fraught with tension from the off, and you could sense the Stormers’ nervousness, as well as that of the sections of the crowd that was supporting them.

There wasn’t much in the feeling out period at the start of the game, but then it came. In the 14th minute Sean Maitland intercepted a Stormers pass and ran 40 metres for the opening try. The Stormers were 7-0 down and they just imploded after that, with that game electing the re-emergence of the dreaded C word.

Were the Stormers chokers? Maybe, but then in 1999 the Highlanders did put together an outstanding rugby performance, and the Crusaders, who had pretty much lived in aeroplanes during their 2011 campaign because of the Christchurch earthquake, were clinical, efficient and ruthless in this semifinal.

Dan Carter punished Stormers indiscretions in quick succession to stretch the score to 16-3 after 24 minutes, and it was 23-10 at halftime. No race, and the second half, with the Crusaders feeling they had already done their job and were winding down the clock, settling for a decisive 29-10 scoreline.

THE JAQUE FOURIE SHOW

It was a far cry from what the Stormers had experienced the year before. That season, 2010, was the one where they finished second to the Bulls and lost to their arch-rivals in the Orlando Stadium final.

They started the season as if they had a train to catch, and by the time they reached their 12th round fixture against the Crusaders a place in the play-offs was within arms reach. They made sure of it with an emphatic 42-14 win on a night when they were physically dominant and also sublimely brilliant on attack.

That latter description belongs mostly to Jaque Fourie. You want to know what the Stormers need for Saturday’s clash with the Crusaders? Take a look at the videos of the 2010 clash before arguing against the contention that it was Jaque Fourie, or Mossie as he was known by both his franchise and Springbok teammates.

“I didn’t play in that game because as you will recall I was playing in Ireland that season, but I watched it on television and Jaque was just outstanding, world class,” says De Villiers.

Fourie scored two tries. The second one saw him take an inside pass from replacement wing Gio Aplon on the final whistle to complete the rout, but it was first one, which came not long after halftime, was just magic and was the moment that swung the match emphatically the Stormers way after a first half which had seen the Crusaders punished by Peter Grant’s boot.

It was Grant who unleashed the inside pass on the Stormers’ side of the halfway line that saw Fourie dance his way through a gap down the middle of the field before using his pace to go wide and outstrip the remaining cover defenders.

The same Fourie scored a brilliant try in the following year’s game too, thus underlining his class and ability to excel on the big occasion days.

While the Newlands games have mostly been tight tussles, that has been less the case in Christchurch. However, in 2012 when the Stormers topped the overall log before losing a home semifinal (another choke?) to the Sharks, it was a close game, the Crusaders edging home 31-24 a week after the Stormers had started their tour with a thumping 21-6 win over the Highlanders in Dunedin.

A LOT OF SUB-TEXT TO 2013

The 2013 game at Newlands, the last time these teams played in Cape Town, was played on Easter Saturday, and it resulted in a close and hard fought 19-14 win for Crusaders. But there was a lot of sub-text to that match. For a start, it was one that the Stormers should have been expected to win for not only did the Crusaders start without Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and Kieran Read, they also lost prop Owen Franks early in the game.

The loss was seen as a massive failure by Stormers fans, and it heralded a slide out of contention for play-off places for the first time since 2009. But the sub-text isn’t finished. What most of the Cape rugby public and media didn’t know that day was that star Stormers player Schalk Burger was in ICU in a local hospital fighting viral Meningitis. It was later learned that when the Stormers played that day there were even fears for Burger’s life.

“I do remember that. Obviously when a person that is so important in the team, and that some of us were very close to, was in the condition that Schalk was then it does affect you,” said De Villiers.

SKINSTAD PROVIDED ANOTHER DRAMATIC FOOTNOTE

That’s one dramatic footnote to a Stormers/Crusaders match at Newlands, but here’ another: In 1999 the Stormers scored an impressive victory over the reigning champions in a Sunday afternoon game to become clear favourites to win the competition that year, only for disaster to strike late that night.

Bob Skinstad was very much the catalyst for the Stormers’ Men in Black success of that season, a year where Newlands was packed to the brim on successive weekends and the team built impressive momentum on the field.

Of course there are 15 players that make up a team, but when it was learned on the Monday that Skinstad had been involved in a motor accident somewhere in Cape Town’s southern suburbs after celebrating his team’s win, and was to be out for the rest of the Super 12 season, that was a killer blow to the Stormers’ hopes.

Good wins against the Crusaders at Newlands weren’t quite such a rare thing in those days as they seem to be now. In fact in Alan Solomons’ stint as Stormers coach he beat them twice, first in that 1999 game and then again in 2001, when the Stormers won with a 49-28 scoreline that seems quite astounding 18 years later.

As always there’s sub-text we need to take note of - the Crusaders were pretty awful that year, it was one of their rare off-seasons. They came 10th out of 12 teams in a year where the Brumbies beat the Shark in the Canberra final and the Cats, coached by Laurie Mains, also made the knock-outs.

A BOLT OF LIGHT IN THE DARK

There has been one other Stormers win over the Crusaders, and it sent out the message that you don’t always have to be in the throes of an outstanding season to beat the Crusaders.

“I recall us beating the Crusaders at Newlands in 2006,” says De Villiers. “I don’t remember too much about that game except that myself and De Wet Barry scored tries. I wasn’t captaining back then. Neil de Kock (scrumhalf) was the captain.”

And Kobus van der Merwe was the coach. Remember him? It wasn’t a great time for the Stormers, and a year later Van der Merwe was effectively removed by a player revolt.

For the record, it was Caleb Ralph’s 100th consecutive match for Crusaders, the score that day was 28-17, and De Villiers is right, Barry did score the first try, an intercept in the early minutes. Perhaps that is the key for the Stormers this weekend - a look back at the Stormers wins shows that they started well, and got an early lead, in all of those games. They also profited from a slice of luck. They will need that on Saturday if they are to make it five Stormers wins in 21 and send a mood of sobriety through the legions of the Cape Crusaders army.