As a stormers fan, one can hardly be upset by last Saturday’s shellacking at The hands of New Zealand’s finest. For starters they were so vastly superior in every facet of the game that you could hardly hold it against them. They played rugby that was a joy to watch, they were infinitely more physical than us and they had an ingredient in spade loads that we seemed to lack, that is that “they started with the why”.

The Crusaders had a very deep and intrinsic reason to win on Saturday and to win the whole tournament – which I believe they will tomorrow – and that reason is to provide hope. Christchurch kids (and adults) have been dreaming about a home RWC, cruelly their city won’t be hosting any games in the tournament. With so many lives lost and homes and dreams shattered, this team set about providing a beacon of hope for their supporters. Their “why” won’t allow them to fail. For them, it’s more then just rugby.

Park that gracious thought for a moment if you will, while i moan and bitch about something. Let’s ponder why it is that the stormers have all season allowed a number of their tight forwards to prance around in the centers and often at first receiver. Our inability to get numbers to tackle ball situations was a large portion of our undoing. While our forwards dithered, we were outmanned, out muscled and turned over. And when your set scrum is being murdered like they were, we should really have been honoring any possession we had.

But that isn’t the only thing that upset me, we looked scared to try anything. We offloaded once in contact and it led to Jacque Fourie almost scoring in the corner. What was holding them back? They were frightened to express themselves and selecting Aplon on the wing and not at the back where he should have been signalled that intent.

Finally, Brian Habana deserves a mention. He tried his guts out all afternoon. May that be the corner finally turned.

Tomorrow the two most deserving teams will take to the field In a dream final and it will be a cracker. Cooper vs Carter – what a match up. Will the Crusaders pack be able to assert as much authority as they did against us? One would think that the Reds would have learned from our mistakes. And if they are dominant, how will Genia handle it? What’s your prediction?

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