Hat-trick or history — Villager set for Gold Cup decider against three-time winners Naka Bulls

Jon Harris

South Africa’s premier national club rugby championships reach a crescendo at Brookside, on Saturday, when Villager FC hosts defending champions, Naka Bulls, in the Pick ‘n Pay Gold Cup Final. It will be the Claremont club’s first final in the championship, while the Naka Bulls are chasing their hat trick, having taken the 2023 and 2024 titles consecutively.

Villager last brought silverware home when they won the Super League A in 2000, their fortunes dipping horrendously in the ensuing years.

South Africa’s second-oldest rugby club has an impressive achievement column in its historical synopsis, winning the Grand Challenge that most opposition clubs would care not to remember. Similarly, their honours board is a who's who of the Cape game, a source of pride for all club members.

Saturday’s appearance in the final marks a remarkable story of weathering storms that tested commitment and club pride. Professionalism dealt a telling blow to the club game, seemingly casting it aside and robbing so many young players and fans of the platform for which they yearned to express their talent. The club experience is almost all-encompassing, not only the domain of the playing section. Pride in the club is extended to the spectator, the passionate one who wants to experience the thrill of the live game, the crunching tackles happening mere metres away, the exciting counterattacks, and the simple exhilaration of being present.

 The Dirty Whites, mere seasons after their 2000 title, began a free fall which was difficult to arrest. This phenomenon was not unique to them. So many clubs suffered the same fate, some of whom populate Super League A and Super League B to this day. Others, like Gardens-Tech and van der Stel, kept the faith and rebuilt their clubs, the latter competing in this year’s league honours with great aplomb.

 Will it be history in the making, the perfect curtain raiser for a red-letter season next year? It will be an occasion to experience, a display of quality rugby, North versus South.

Barely three or four years ago, doomsayers predicted the closing of doors at Brookside. The sounds of rugby echoed through the corridors of the business park framing the pitch, without the accompaniment of supporter sounds, a sometimes desolate, heartbreaking scene for members. The fighting spirit in humans is reflected in the organisations they inhabit, and today, the Claremont club is SLA2025 champions, and on the cusp of making that double with national honours too. It is a fairytale build-up to their 150th anniversary year in 2026, and it appears almost pre-ordained.

Coach Andy Coetzee and his panel have worked tirelessly to get to this point. They have only lost one match this season, in the dying seconds to DurBell. They have vanquished historic rivals, Hamilton three times in 2025, knocking them out in the first round of the Pick ‘n Pay Gold Cup. They have been the form team of the club game in the Cape for 2024 and 2025. Even when performing under par, they have hung on for victory, the measurement of a quality outfit.

Coetzee has conditioned his players well, molded them into a unit confident in their ability and, more importantly, the man next to them. Each player entrusted with the shirt on match day fully understands what is expected of him and is ready to deliver more. Their pride in the shirt is palpable, oozing out of every pore, somewhat disconcerting to the opposition.

It would be churlish to assume that the warriors facing them are any less prepared. They are as proud of the shirt as those who wore it before them. They are equally desirous of that title, a beckoning hat-tick of consecutive titles as inspiring as one hundred and forty-nine years of history, but for totally different reasons.

Naka Bulls represent the Blue Bulls Rugby Union, who have directed so much focus at the club game, recognising the role that echelon plays in the profile of the South African game. So much has been made in recent years of the abundance of talent available in the South African player pool, and when observing its extent, one recognizes the dire need for attention to be poured into the amateur club game to complete the richly textured South African rugby tapestry.

With this support from the Union and the determination to bag the hat-trick, Naka Bulls travel to Cape Town this week, intent on carrying silverware home.

The teams size up pretty evenly, it appears. Naka Bulls, almost traditionally, have a big, athletic pack of forwards, there to launch attack after attack around the rucks and mauls; to viciously tackle their opponents, audaciously attempting the same. When the space is created, their strong, physical and nimble backs are there to exploit the space created.

The Brooksiders are similar in style, and the contest is almost guaranteed to deliver big hits galore and behind that battleground, the strategic skirmish for scoreboard supremacy promises to enthrall beyond the final whistle.

Kick off at Brookside on Saturday is at 3pm. Entrance is R20 a person, R20 a car. Scholars enter free of charge.