The DHL Stormers gained two league points in Swansea. They did not lose two league points. But we have every reason to feel they lost in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC).
A team gets four league points for a win and if they score a four-try bonus point in a match, they get an additional point. In summary, 16 league points from four matches is a job done. Anything beyond that is a bonus.
Defending champions the Stormers have 17 league points from four matches. They have won three and drawn one, which includes 14 wins in succession and Friday night’s 16-all draw against Wales’s Ospreys in Swansea.
Ireland’s Leinster lead the league after a 10-0 win against Connacht.
This is the same Leinster that put 54 points past the Sharks a week ago and scored eight tries in the process.
The URC is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be those sub-10 second moments for some teams, which must be celebrated on the night, but to win this tournament teams have to be long-distance runners and not sprinters.
The Stormers, last season, after three matches, had three league points. They ended up winning the South Africa league, finished second in the overall league and beat the Bulls in the final. This was a Bulls team that won one match in their first six.
It was the stuff of dreams for South African rugby, but also a reminder of the reality of this league.
Form in October is irrelevant to form in June when the title gets decided. Which doesn’t mean we can’t live each match as if it is the last.
I was furious a week ago at the Bulls’ capitulation against the Warriors in Glasgow.
Equally, I wished the Sharks had loaded their bench with Springboks for that final 20 minutes against Leinster in Dublin. Instead, a one pointer turned into a 20-point win for the hosts.
It was a league opportunity lost for the Sharks and, in eight months, we may talk of it as three decisive play-off league points.
The contrast was the Lions’ fight to win in the final minutes in Edinburgh. That was glorious but eight months from now that match may seem inconsequential.
I could preach perspective in the context of the league calendar, but right now who wants to read about perspective?
It is about the now, what you watched and what I watched. Perhaps we were sitting in different positions on the couch, but it would be hard to disagree on that feeling of hollowness, especially when it comes to the record-breaking Stormers.
We want more and demand more because we are more
The Cape Town-based champions have a fantastic culture, a brilliant coach in John Dobson and are unbeaten in 15 URC matches, but such is the expectation and standard that they have set, that two league points and a draw in another country will not cut it — at least not on Friday night in the immediate emotional aftermath of the moment.
Which brings me back to it all — how blessed are we as South African supporters, reporters and ambassadors of the game to feel like this? How blessed are we to bemoan a team that has taken seven league points in two overseas matches and still hasn’t been beaten in a year.
How blessed are we to have these expectations of our South African quartet of franchises in the URC. This time last year, a South African overseas draw would have been a celebration. Now it is an insult.
We want more and demand more because we are more.
That speaks to the strength of South African rugby more than it does the ignorance or preciousness of any South African supporter or reporter.
• Mark Keohane is the founder of keo.co.za, a multiple award-winning sports writer and the digital content director at Highbury Media. Twitter: @mark_keohane
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