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The bizarre Loftus Versfeld factor that potentially played into Glasgow's hands

Glasgow Warriors players celebrate with the trophy after winning the United Rugby Championship (URC) final match between The Bulls (Pretoria) and Glasgow Warriors (Glasgow) at Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria on June 22, 2024. (Photo by Phill Magakoe / AFP via Getty Images)

Many expected the Blue Bulls to hold a significant home field advantage over the Glasgow Warriors at Loftus Versfeld in the United Rugby Championship final, in part due to the altitude.

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The famous stadium on the High Veld has the altitude level bannered above the entry to the field play, telling visitors that “it matters”.
The altitude factor was attributed in playing a role of the Bulls’ victory over Leinster in the semi-final last weekend.

Glasgow Warriors prop Jamie Bhatti shared a playful post after the Warriors’ 21-16 upset win, taking a photo with the signage.

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But some have tabled a new theory that led to fortress Loftus becoming “night club Loftus”, with interference from the stadium DJ contributing to an atmosphere that took away the intimidation factor.

South African rugby writer Brendan Nel penned a column for SuperSport highlighting that the DJ attempted play music for the entire 80 minutes.

“When you have a partisan home crowd backing you, playing 80 minutes of music takes them out of the fight,” he wrote.

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Others chimed in with agreement, with the music at Loftus becoming a gripe over “a few seasons”.

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Comments

3 Comments
S
SteveD 180 days ago

Totally agree. But at least watching the game on TV I could turn the sound down a bit! Mind you, while I'll probably get lambasted for saying this, the Northern Transvaal/Gauteng has always been a bit of a nuthouse and their supporters likewise. Bless them.

J
John 181 days ago

The music constantly playing so that there isn’t 4 seconds of dead air is a bit stupid but the words clutching and straws come to mind.

S
Schalk 182 days ago

That’s more like it Benny :)

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JW 4 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).

Number Of Clubs:

1526

Registered+Unregistered Players:

651146

Number of Referees:

3460

Pre-teen Male Players:

320842

Pre-teen Female Player:

4522

Teen Male Player:

199213

Teen Female Player:

4906

Senior Male Player:

113174

Senior Female Player:

8489

Total Male Player:

633229

Total Female Player:

17917


So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.

The total number of clubs remains consistent, with a marginal increase of 1% from 1,161 to 1,167. 8.1.

A comparative analysis of verified data for 2022 and 2023 highlights a marginal decline of 1% in the number of female players, declining from 6,801 to 6,723. Additionally, the total number of players demonstrates an 8% decrease, dropping from 96,172 to 88,828.

So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).


https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.


The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.


In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.

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