Dodgy Cape Town Stadium pitch looks set to hold up ... for one final hurrah

Cape Town Stadium's playing surface may be "on its last legs", but it should hold up for perhaps one final hurrah when the Stormers tackle Connacht in the URC semi-finals on Saturday.

The stadium's pitch has been problematic for some time and parts of it tore up badly during the Stormers' 33-21 quarter-final win over the Bulls last weekend.

There were fears that Thursday's rain would see the pitch deteriorate even further, but that appears not to be the case as the rain in the Mother City wasn't heavy, while a strong south-easterly wind had helped to dry up matters as the Stormers held their captain's run on Friday.

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An insider told News24 that there were fears that more rain on Friday could make the surface worse, but luckily the rain stayed away.

No rain is predicted for Saturday, while the strong south-easter is expected to persist. This should leave the field in no worse state than it already was last Saturday.

The semi-final may well be the final rugby game to be played on the field as a new hybrid pitch, which will be 50% synthetic and 50% grass, will be laid in July.

The only way the Stormers will play another game on the surface is if they beat Connacht and Leinster somehow slip up in their semi-final against Munster.

Stormers assistant coach Dawie Snyman said earlier in the week that the Cape Town Stadium pitch was "probably on its last legs", but that the home side were used to it by now.

"Look, it's where we're playing at the moment. Maybe it's an advantage for us because we understand the surface," Snyman said.

"We get opportunities to train on the field. It's not something we really complain about. We just get on