Ken Borland

Bulls supporters can treat themselves to a top-class rugby match for just R25 on Saturday as ticket prices for their crunch game against Ulster at Loftus Versfeld have been slashed.

The move follows a disappointing response last weekend to government’s relaxing of the Covid regulations to allow sports stadiums to have spectators up to 50% of capacity.

The biggest attendance in the four United Rugby Championship matches played in South Africa last weekend came at Kings Park in Durban when a crowd of 5120 braved a torrential downpour and a frustrating loss for the Sharks team against Edinburgh. But that was still less than 10% of capacity.

Cape Town Stadium (capacity 55 000) had a crowd of 3544 for the Stormers’ nailbiting win over Ulster, about 3000 people attended the Bulls’ previous game at Loftus Versfeld (capacity 50 000) and Ellis Park (capacity 62 000) had a paltry crowd of 2500 for the Lions’ impressive win over the Ospreys, but it was a Friday night, 7pm kickoff in Doornfontein, which is always a hard sell.

A variety of reasons have been put forward for the poor attendances, including a lack of sufficient time for both the unions and the fans to change their plans in response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement.

Ticket prices have also been suggested as a deterrent in these tough economic times. Cape Town Stadium tickets ranged in price from R80 to R200 per person, Kings Park was R50 to R160 and Ellis Park was R40 to R180.

Tickets for the match between the Bulls and the Dragons were at an average of R100, so prices have been slashed by a whopping 75%. And it has proven to be a success with CEO Edgar Rathbone revealing they had sold 3000 tickets on Tuesday morning alone.

The fact that the stadiums can now also sell alcohol to spectators could be a telling factor as well to getting the crowds back to rugby.

Anecdotally, other reasons that have been put forward for not attending include the requirement that all spectators be vaccinated or produce a negative Covid test that is less than 72 hours old; the hassle of getting to some of the stadiums making it much easier to just watch on TV; and security concerns.

There has been no word yet on whether the Sharks, Lions and Stormers will follow the Bulls’ lead in cutting the price of tickets. Their websites still reflected the same prices as for last weekend on Tuesday afternoon.

But rugby administrators should be able to tell from the size of the crowd at Loftus Versfeld at 2pm on Saturday whether ticket prices really do make a difference to attendance.

For two weekends in a row, the Stormers have looked down and out on the road but have shown the same remarkable resilience to avoid defeat and keep themselves very much in contention to win the South African Shield in the United Rugby Championship.

Last weekend in Pretoria, they were 26-18 down against the Bulls with just 12 minutes left, but the Stormers scored two brilliant breakaway tries at the death to win 30-26. This weekend, they were trailing 19-3 after 51 minutes and their scrum was getting mangled against the Sharks in Durban, but they fought back to snatch a 22-22 draw.

Those seven away points have lifted the Stormers to 12^th place on the log with 14 points, just two behind the 10^th-placed Sharks.

“You’ve got to be quite resilient to be a Stormers player these days and these players have obviously got bucket-loads of that,” Dobson beamed after their latest escape. “Things went for us … I thought we were dead, buried and finished.

“We conceded 18 penalties, seven of them at the scrum. I’m not sure what era of Western Province rugby would ever have seen that sort of count before.

“To get seven points away from home these last two weeks is really good, especially when you play as poorly as we did today. That was probably our worst performance of the URC.

“But I’m really very happy, it proves the guys are tight, they are showing that fight. If we keep this group together, we could be a reasonable team. Just give us some time,” Dobson said.

The Stormers coach seemed to acknowledge that his side had been outplayed and that, on a normal day, they would have suffered defeat.

“It was not a great game from us, we lacked organisation and control and that slowed our game down, until we decided to speed things up a bit in the second half. But our game-management was poor.

“The truth is we were lucky. The Sharks were not at their full pomp, but they had enough chances to finish us. But we defended their maul well,” Dobson said.

The Lions have always played their rugby in expansive fashion believing that one or two mistakes are affordable if they are scoring plenty of tries themselves. It is a bold approach which Sharks fullback Aphelele Fassi is primed to try and take advantage of when the two sides meet in their United Rugby Championship match at Ellis Park on Saturday.

If Fassi has shown one thing so far in his exciting career it is how lethal he is when it comes to counter-attacking opportunities. And the Springbok who turns 24 on Sunday is just delighted to be getting out into the heat of action again, having last taken the field on November 20 in the Toyota Challenge friendly against the Free State Cheetahs. Before that, his previous game was on August 14 for the Springboks against Argentina.

“The Lions are always full of intensity and we expect a very fast game,” Fassi said on Tuesday. “They love to play with a lot of intensity and keep the ball in play.

“But then a lot of mistakes can also come into play and we need to be able to capitalise on the opportunities we get. If we get five chances, maybe we convert four of them, which would be great.

“But I’m just super-excited to get out there and play. It’s the first time playing in the United Rugby Championship for a lot of us, and for some of us it’s the first time we’re playing a match in a long time.

“The mood in the squad in general is relaxed and eager to play. We’re just delighted to have these fixtures,” Fassi said.

While it seems like the South African teams have been playing each other on an almost monthly basis when the rugby season has been in full swing, Fassi said the Sharks have their eyes set on improving their overseas performances in the new year.

“Phase 1 of the URC was playing overseas and it was quite difficult for us. But we will take those learnings into this year. Our goal is to improve and we look forward to rectifying those mistakes and building from there.

“The things I’ve learnt from the Springboks, obviously I’m trying to bring those to the team and there are a couple of Boks bringing experience from there.

“But we’re also taking knowledge from the URC guys as well, they’ve been telling us how the competition is,” Fassi said.

Proteas captain Dean Elgar has been urging his players, comprehensively beaten in the first Test last week and then shocked by Quinton de Kock’s retirement, to lift themselves up and toughen up mentally for the second Test against India which starts at the Wanderers on Monday.

While one new face is definite, Kyle Verreynne replacing De Kock behind the stumps, Elgar said other changes were also being discussed. But any alterations are likely to be minor as the captain made it clear on Sunday that he still backs his players and they have to find it within themselves to simply be better in the crucial second Test.

“There’s no need to panic, we have a lot of capable players, even if some of them are inexperienced, and they need to take responsibility,” Elgar said. “It’s extremely important to back them, that’s how you build and grow a team.

“They’re not suddenly bad players, they just need to be mentally more switched on. They need to understand Test cricket is bloody tough. It’s a harsh environment and you need to ask yourself tough questions and then respond.

“The batsmen are up against some of the best bowlers in the world now and they need to put on their big-boy pants. I can talk and talk, but we need to see a reaction now, otherwise the talk is cheap.

“We’ve had quite a few setbacks in recent times, these are just another couple that we need to get over and be clever around. We have to get over it and move on,” Elgar said.

It seems certain that South Africa are not going to sacrifice spinner Keshav Maharaj in order to play an extra batsman or pace bowler either.

“I think the Wanderers pitch will play a lot better than it has recently, it’s going to be more batsmen-friendly, a better cricket wicket. But the batsmen have to put their hands up and take responsibility.

“Sometimes you choose an attack based on horses-for-courses, but Kesh is very adaptable, a very smart cricketer whose record speaks for itself. I always favour having a frontline spinner.

“Being a left-arm spinner to 10 right-handers in the Indian batting line-up, that’s something to utilise. Tactically we need to be much better and Kesh has an extremely big role to play in this series.

“With the conditions as they are now, I would think Kesh is going to play. He stabilises our bowling, I know I can throw the ball to him and he will keep down the run-rate. He gives us better options,” Elgar said.