Stormers coach John Dobson opens up about the "painful" but necessary decision to drop the Western Province name from the Currie Cup. Photo: Backpagepix
Image: Backpagepix
Western Province won the Currie Cup 34 times between 1889 and 2024, but never again will that name appear on the world’s oldest trophy in provincial competition. And that is because the Currie Cup is not the Grand Old Dame it was in South Africa’s amateur era, and Stormers Rugby no longer want to belittle a historic name in a watered-down competition.
The Currie Cup remains an important feeder competition, but the heavyweight tournaments for SA’s leading teams are now in Europe.
Stormers coach John Dobson has explained why the painful decision has been made in the Cape to concentrate on the Stormers brand and to confine the name “Western Province” to the history books.
Stormers Rugby announced last week that their Currie Cup team will be called the Stormers XXIII (23). A small consolation for sentimentalists is that the amateur representative teams (such as the Craven Week side) in the Cape will retain the Western Province name.
“I grew up supporting Province,” Dobson said, at a media conference on Monday. “My family were season ticket holders, and I first went to watch Province play in 1976 at Newlands, so it means a lot to me.
“The reality is that the Currie Cup has been in decline for some time. Commercially, it became very difficult to support two separate professional brands,” he explained.
“The writing was on the wall. We resisted the longest. The Sharks have called themselves the “Sharks XV” for years in the Currie Cup.
“We held on longer because the Western Province tradition and ethos mean so much. I think we did very well to hold out as long as we did.”
Dobson used a colourful wine metaphor to describe the relationship between Western Province and the Stormers.
“The Stormers are like the label on the bottle, but the terroir — the land the wine comes from — is Western Province. You can’t separate that. That heritage will always be there.”
Dobson said that the new Stormers kit, which strongly resembles the historic Western Province colours, pays homage to history.
“There’s been an ostensible, obvious effort by Stormers Rugby to look more like Western Province,” he said.
“When the designs first came out, somebody said white shorts, and it was ‘no, it must be black shorts’. It’s curious because nobody else wears black shorts with a blue and white top, and with the socks looking the same and the disa on the back.”
Dobson said that the removal of the Western Province name from the professional structure makes it easier for young players to understand the pathway to the top.
“For the junior teams, it’s great because they now aspire directly to become Stormers.”
* Mike Greenaway is a senior rugby reporter at Independent Media and contributor on our Last World on Rugby podcast on our YouTube channel, The Clutch.