URC victory for Glasgow shows strength of Scottish rugby

Glasgow Warriors were crowned the URC champions after a gutsy performance away to The Bulls.

Following Munster's away victory last year, Glasgow have shown that the URC travel issues can be overcome and the Irish province winning on the road in South Africa wasn’t an outlier. The obstacle became the way, Glasgow relished the chance to go away from home and cause an upset. They didn’t allow the travel plans to disrupt their opportunity of securing the title.

Glasgow beat the champions in an away semi-final and then the Bulls at 1,350m of altitude at Loftus Versfeld Stadium. You can’t say they did things the easy way. They struggled to put down any marker in South Africa when they played the Lions and Bulls in rounds 16 and 17.

However, they had time to turn their fortunes around and deservedly brought success back to Scottish rugby.

Question marks will remain around how the inclusion of the South African teams can be made more cohesive. The transition isn’t done yet, despite Glasgow winning the trophy and the drama of logistics being put to bed for another while. Uncertainty remains surrounding travel, short turnarounds between matches but most importantly, around funding sustainability.

Professional sport, and rugby in this instance, is on its knees economically. Multiple English clubs have gone bust, whereas the unions do more in the Celtic nations to prop up their regional and provincial sides.

Squads are being cut everywhere, tough decisions are being made and players are losing their jobs in an attempt to secure the future of the unions.

The Welsh regions are desperately trying to find a way to survive. The Ospreys making a quarter-final and top eight this year has been a major highlight and feather in the cap of a well coached team. That’s not where Welsh rugby wants to be. Behind Irish, Scottish, South African and dangerously close to Italian rugby.

Benetton finished seventh, higher than all Welsh regions, however Zebre finished last in the table to spare Welsh blushes. It’s easier to manage two teams as opposed to the four Welsh, but still, Italian rugby is trending in the right direction, whereas the Welsh are trying their hardest to survive.

It’s either survive at a lower output for now, or be non-existent in the future.

Funding a sustainable way to keep the South African teams in this league is non-negotiable. Sponsorship has helped with the travelling parties, but it’s not a perfect model, and relying on a sponsor means that they could be left high and dry any year, based on the economic situation. It also means that teams have to take certain flights which might not be the most efficient way to travel.

Talk of each flight costing thousands of pounds for Glasgow’s trip to the final will feel worth it after lifting the trophy. It would be an awful lot of money to spend if you were to return empty handed.

URC teams have been helped with funding from the URC itself, whereas South African teams have been covered by SARU.

For South African teams, they were used to travelling for long stretches to Australia and New Zealand. Super Rugby included teams from Argentina and Japan as well. The logistical burden of travelling long distances for fixtures, crossing multiple time zones and the inevitable cost has more than likely been eased for these teams going to Europe. It doesn’t make it easy, but their situation has more than likely become easier to manage.

European teams never had that level of travel and therefore the transition from a financial perspective must be tough.

However, from a rugby perspective, you can’t argue that the league hasn’t been better after the South African inclusion. Glasgow have won the league in the most difficult way possible.

The Bulls have as strong a setpiece as any team and therefore European teams need to be stronger and more accurate. They can play a kicking game that’s hard to break down, as seen in the Leinster semi-final. Yet they can also play a fast attacking game too, so they challenge European teams in a host of ways.

SARU are clearly focused on bringing as many South African players home as possible. Their franchises have been bolstered by many signings in the last year or two. They have internationals throughout their teams, and where they’re not available, we can see the strength of a rugby nation like South Africa, their depth of club player is strong enough to challenge in the URC regularly.

All of this means that European teams, such as Glasgow, need to be at their strongest to be successful and not fall behind.

Glasgow winning the league will do wonders for easing any negative chat around the league structure. Once things are working financially for teams and unions behind the scenes, the pros of South African inclusion certainly outweighs the cons.

Three different teams, from different countries, have won the league in the last three years. It shows how strong the competition is.

Glasgow last won the league in 2015. Since then, the league was dominated by Irish teams, with a win for the Scarlets and Stormers sprinkled in there. This must be one of Glasgow’s biggest successes, in the most difficult era of the URC.

Celebrations will be curtailed for some of the Glasgow contingent, who will travel to North and South America in a tour focusing on developing their future talent. Some names have been left out after a long season.

Scottish rugby can build off the back off Glasgow’s success in South Africa when their more serious business resumes in the Autumn series.