After Boks aced Test in Dublin, Stormers face an exam in Limerick

You don’t hear the phrase “world-historical” in rugby very often. That’s because world-historical events only come round once in a blue moon. If you heard it every week, it would no longer be “world-historical”.

Some phrases are the aged malt-whiskies of language: reserved for special occasions.

So here’s the thing. The Springboks beating Ireland 24-13 in Dublin on Saturday night was a world-historical event, rippling across the sporting world like a slow but deadly earthquake. First, because in players like Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong and James Ryan, this was the cream of Irish and British Lions rugby, the froth, if you like, on a pint of Irish Guinness.

Second, conversations around Ireland ever winning a World Cup were revealed after the result to be so much malarky, the kind of s**t-talking folk get up to when they’ve had a pint or two too many of said beverage after the game on Saturday night.

Third, the Irish resorted to jiggery-pokery: an implicit admission of failure. At one point Jack Crowley, a replacement for Sam Prendergast, himself yellow-carded, was yellow-carded. It was a rum old day for the Irish. Andy Farrell, Ireland’s coach, can’t have slept well on Saturday night.

Crowley, Muster’s incumbent flyhalf, will find himself in the more congenial surrounds of Thomond Park in Limerick on Saturday night, as the hosts take on the Stormers with the resumption of the United Rugby Championship (URC) after the autumn internationals. It’s one versus two, with both teams unbeaten in five, the Stormers top by virtue of greater points difference.

Munster, we’ve been led to believe, are a new team under Kiwi coach Clayton McMillan and Saturday night will provide an opportunity to further stress-test the theory.

They’ve started well. In the competition’s opening round, they beat Leinster at Croke Park in Dublin on the back of a masterful display of cunning by Tadhg Beirne.

There’s always needle in the match-up. The men from Munster feel Leinster are the soft city boys, while Leinster feel Munster are chippy provincials. The crowd at Croke Park in October numbered 51,859, while the self-same fixture last URC season drew a crowd of 80,468 to Lansdowne Road.

It’s so big, it’s huge.

Wearing a blue scrum cap, Beirne popped up everywhere against Leinster, the definitive man who made a nuisance of himself. He will be everywhere on Saturday night as Munster attempt to put distance between themselves and a patchy record last season. It saw them win nine and lose nine, losing to the Sharks in that memorable kickoff in the dark in the URC quarterfinals.

As for John Dobson’s Stormers, this is the season when his players, his combinations and his team develop. He can’t say that, of course, because he’ll be accused of being naff. He must say things that are obviously more sponsor and fan-friendly.

But the fact remains that in players like Paul de Villiers, Marcel Theunissen and Jurie Matthee he has young dogs rather than heads of household. He needs to keep winning, of course — sport isn’t about failure or forgiveness, but the real story is how the next generation bed down.

It will be cold in Limerick. The wind could be blowing and there might be rain. The crowd will be well-behaved but unfriendly. It won’t be like throwing the ball around in Stellenbosch on a hot February afternoon.

Another thing. Dobson’s developing himself. Everything the Stormers have shown so far in this URC is that the pragmatism of the structured kicking game in the middle third of the pitch is slowly becoming Dobson’s friend. Stormers teams circa the 2025-26 URC have become a little less free-wheeling, more circumspect.

Slow poison rather than happy gas, though you can always rely on a player like Warrick Gelant to raise the blood pressure in all kinds of interesting ways.

The real player’s player in all of this is De Villiers, the former South African under-20 captain. The blindside gives off a Deon Fourie-type energy and you wonder if perhaps he’s a hooker in the making. As busy as a mop, he’s always cleaning up on the floor.

But back to the Boks. At much the same time that Munster are entertaining the Stormers, so the Springboks will be at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, playing the last match of their European tour against Wales, Cobus Reinach making his 50^th appearance off the bench. Presuming they beat Wales, even with a motley crew, it is a tour that will privately have frightened the rest of the rugby-playing world.

Predictions are the paupers of sport, but current world form suggests there are only two teams capable of staying in the ring with the Boks for the full eighty minutes — England and the All Blacks. Rassie Erasmus is planning on a hat-trick of World Cup victories in 2027. From two years out, you wouldn’t bet against him.