Gavin Rich argues that while the Bulls' Croke Park capitulation drew most of the post-final heat, the more significant failure belonged to the Stormers. Their Cardiff loss in the final league round cost them a top-two finish and, with it, a home semifinal against Leinster — a game Rich believes they would have had a genuine shot at winning given how close they pushed Leinster at the Aviva Stadium as the away side. A home final would then have followed, and the URC title picture could have looked very different.
On the Bulls, Rich is measured: he thinks they over-achieved from fourth place and that the home-venue reality of Croke Park — evidenced by marginal TMO calls going Leinster's way — made the outcome largely predictable. He does identify specific tactical errors: Wilco Louw and Cobus Wiese should have started to counter Leinster's fast-break game, the lineout was poor early, and the yellow cards were fatal. Elsewhere, Rich is blunt about the Sharks — their season was quietly dismal, JP Pietersen's permanent appointment looks premature, and the squad rebuild is unstable — while casting the Lions as the competition's genuine improvers. Looking ahead, he flags the Stormers' incoming additions of Kolisi, Kolbe, Louw, Lavanini, and Norton as making them the South African franchise to watch next season.