This is not just Leinster against the Vodacom Bulls in the most anticipated semi-final of the Vodacom Rugby Championship. This is South Africa versus Ireland. This is one versus two in the rugby world, writes Mark Keohane

If we are talking about another URC play-off fight week, then it does not get bigger. It is Ireland in the Republic, at altitude, in the unofficial first of three Tests.

Leinster, stacked with current Irish internationals, could easily be wearing green on Saturday. There is so much international quality to this squad. They are to Ireland what the great early Auckland Blues were to the All Blacks and some of the very best Crusaders teams were to the men in black.

Ditto what the potent Brumbies of the late 1990s and early 2000s were to the well-being for the Wallabies.

I expected Saturday’s semi-final to sell out, with the South African rugby public making a statement of intensity to Irish rugby.

Perhaps it is because of a lack of club and player education, given we are only into the third season of playing in the URC, but I don’t buy this as an excuse for empty seats at Loftus. This Leinster side should need no introduction to South African rugby supporters, just like Richie McCaw’s Crusaders and Zinzan Brooke’s Blues teams needed no introduction.

If you think of Ireland, then think Leinster. This is the biggest rugby match the Bulls have hosted since their championship winning Super Rugby years and it is because of the quality of players wearing Leinster blue.

On the 6^th July the world champions Springboks will host the Irish. The hosts, one in the world and world champions, plays number two in the world, the Six Nations champions.

The Springboks World Cup winners in 2019 and 2023, have dusted every nation, except Ireland.

The two nations have only played twice in six years, once in Dublin in 2022 and, at the World Cup in front of 80 000 in a pool match in Paris in 2023.

Ireland won 19-16 in Dublin and 13-8 in Paris, but the Springboks won the World Cup.

The last time Ireland were in South Africa for a Test series in 2016 was the first time they won a Test in the Republic. The Boks fought back from the Newlands opening Test defeat to take the series 2-1 in the most unconvincing fashion, winning 32-26 in Johannesburg and sealing the deal 19-13 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

This is a different Bok team, back to back world champions, and this is also the best ever Irish team.

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When Ireland’s two-Test series in South Africa was confirmed, the first against the Boks in Pretoria at Loftus on the 6^th July and the second a week later in Durban, the matches sold out in 30 minutes. The capacity at both stadiums is 50 000.

The lust of the South African supporters was to see their World Cup winning Springboks and also the only team to have beaten the Springboks at the World Cup and in between two successive World Cup title wins.

Ireland, shoulder to shoulder and standing tall, the four provinces united, north and south in unison, Ireland’s Emerald Green so prominent, and in South Africa for two Test matches for the first time since 2016.

It is rugby bliss in South Africa.

Why only two Tests bemoaned the South African rugby public earlier this year. Why not three?

Well, there are three, in the guise of the Vodacom Bulls against Leinster in the Vodacom URC semi-final, just three weeks out from when the Boks open their Test year against Ireland.

The Test match in Pretoria sold out within 30 minutes, and 100 000 plus Bulls-based Bok fanatics did not get tickets because capacity could not accommodate command.

Now the Bulls are hosting the core of this Irish team. It should be a sell-out occasion.

On the 21^st September at the 2023 World Cup, Ireland’s coach Andy Farrell named his match 23 to play the Springboks in Paris.

Leinster’s Hugo Keenan started at fullback and Leinster, in the 23, provided midfielders Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw, left wing James Lowe, scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park, hookers Ronan Kelleher and Dan Sheehan, props Andrew Porter and Tadhg Furlong, lock James Ryan, loose-forwards Jos van der Vlier, Caelan Doris and Ryan Baird.

Only the veteran starting No 10 Jonny Sexton is retired of the 11 Leinster starters who fronted the Boks for Ireland, that total increased to 14 in the match day 23, who beat the world champion Boks less than a year ago.

This is the calibre of players who will be at Loftus on Saturday. This is Ireland, in another guise, proudly wearing the Leinster blue, but back in South Africa in July, in the famous Irish green. Leinster’s match 23 in the Champions Cup final against Toulouse included 18 Irish internationals who had all played Test rugby within the past 12 months and another three foreign Test players.

What a class outfit.

The URC is about a fight till the end, where four teams become two on Saturday night, but in the context of 2024, Saturday’s semi-final in Pretoria is also the precursor to the Test series between the Springboks and Ireland.

The Vodacom Bulls versus Leinster is huge because it is South Africa versus Ireland. It is one versus two in the world internationally. It is one shade of green versus another shade of the green and it is dark blue versus light blue.

If you love rugby and you live in the province or up the road, then get there. Leinster’s best must be given a taste of what to expect on the 6th July. You don’t have to support the Bulls to be a Bull for the day, you simply have to emphasise that national is bigger than provincial when it comes to wanting a South African team to succeed.

‘Be Bok and adopt a Bull‘, if only for Saturday.

 

Let’s all get behind the @Vodacom @BlueBullsRugby this weekend as they face Leinster in a Vodacom URC semi-final at Loftus on Saturday! @mark_keohane pic.twitter.com/YN1KK3jYOg

— SA Rugby magazine (@SARugbymag) June 14, 2024

Loftus, in the past few seasons, has been starved of the very biggest rugby occasions. Saturday is big, not just for the Bulls and Leinster but for the psychology leading into the Test series.

 

Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images/Getty Images