Independent Media sports reporter Zaahier Adams argues that Western Province and the Stormers can co-exist.
Image: BackpagePix, Independent Media/Leon Muiller
I have worked with my colleague, and friend, John Goliath, for close to 20 years barring a brief intermission when he chose to run after the fool's gold at a rival publication that no longer exists.
From the very first moment we met we hit it off. We have shared a near-death experience, jolled together like we were 21 years old – because we actually almost were – during the 2010 Fifa World Cup, stood in the slips for our local amateur cricket team, and share primarily the same views on how sport should be played.
But on these very pages just yesterday, he stirred up something inside me. He had the temerity to agree with powers-that-be that Cape Town’s Currie Cup team should no longer be called Western Province and be replaced with Stormers XXIII.
For me that’s sacrilegious. And while I fully understand that if someone like John Dobson who has “Prooovince” running through his veins, who am I to disagree?
But I vehemently disagree. Western Province is part of the DNA of this Mother City. Just like the Stormers are. For me they have always been separate entities that can co-exist.
I have often said that I’m not a rugby intellectual that fully understands the dark art of a scrum penalty or when hands are truly in the ruck. But I am a passionate rugby fan, and a die-hard Stormers supporter.
Nobody loved the Stormers rebranding from the horrible Western Stormers in 1999 more than me. Bobby Skinstad’s Boys in Black were the ultimate. I was there every week in the old standing area in front of the main Grain Stand, and the season after that, and for many more seasons.
But I was also at Newlands with my scholar card, standing behind the poles, when Province won the Currie Cup final due to a forward pass from Free State’s Helgard Muller that saw the home side lift the golden cup in 1997.
I had also been to numerous games when Province still played midweek Super 10 and MNET Night Series rugby, and I was there for many other Currie Cup Final triumphs and defeats.
And yet I wasn’t taken aback when the Stormers and Western Province bid farewell to their historic Boundary Road home in search of greener pastures at the former 2010 Fifa World Cup stadium on the Atlantic seaboard.
I saw it as the beginning of a new era. Much like the way Arsenal bid adieu to Highbury to start afresh at the Emirates Stadium.
That was all swell for me. Especially when I was on the DHL Stadium turf when “Dobbo” literally handed me the URC trophy after the Stormers won the European competition for the first time. New memories can be made.
But this is too much. I don’t like the Stormers playing in a blue-and-white stripes, especially with Dobson stating, “There’s been a real ostensible, obvious effort by Stormers Rugby to look more like Western Province.”
That just makes it worse for me. Province are not the Stormers, and the Stormers are not Province. If Western Province can’t fill DHL Stadium for Currie Cup matches any more, then take the team to the people at Athlone Stadium, City Park and Danie Craven Stadium.
I fully understand that we live in the AI age. That anything is indeed possible. And that it's 2026 where decisions are based on market productivity.
But I would like to remind both Dobson and Goliath, who are both among the most literary people that I know, of a quote from French socialist Jean Jaurès.
“Tradition does not mean to look after the ash, but to keep the flame alive.”
It is a real pity that Western Province’s flame has been extinguished with only its ashes remaining.