The morning Pick n Pay and Raymond Ackerman had to save a Stormers semifinal

Raymond Ackerman makes no secret of how he adores rugby, particularly the Stormers and Western Province.

The founder of Pick n Pay, who was a decent player during his age-group years at the University of Cape Town before injury put paid to any higher ambitions, cultivated his deep love for Newlands as an eight-year-old in 1939’s Currie Cup final, even though legendary Transvaal winger Otto van Niekerk would break his and Province’s heart that day.

It’s little wonder then that on the morning of 22 May 1999, Ackerman felt a strong obligation to personally intervene in a crass, clumsy players’ strike by the Stormers, mere hours before their Super Rugby semifinal against the Highlanders.

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With future Springbok captain Corne Krige and Andy Marinos, nowadays the CEO of Sanzaar, leading the “charge”, they demanded a R20 000 match fee and R5 000 win bonus for appearing in the game.

If that sounds mundane, one would be mistaken.

It was a nasty shock to the system, a spit in the face of every Stormers stakeholder – from sponsors to fans – who contributed to a campaign that truly seemed destined for glory.

But to understand the magnitude of the players’ perceived betrayal, one needs to understand the complete transformation of the franchise’s brand that year.

Following a poor inaugural Super Rugby season in 1998, where head coach Harry Viljoen’s squad played rugby as wayward as their crazy and corny technicolor kit, the Stormers decided to start from scratch.

In conjunction with team sponsor Fedsure, who were later taken over by Investec, they changed to an all-black kit, which the former insurer then used to come up with the “Wear Black” fan campaign.

It worked a treat as support for the franchise soared, a situation undoubtedly helped by the team flourishing on the field under the guidance of new head coach Alan Solomons, who was also assistant to national coach Nick Mallett at the time.

Newlands’ attendance for final six home matches of that season averaged a staggering 46 600 and during the final month of the season, the franchise even launched Stormers Cola, when 30 000 two-litre bottles of the limited edition soft drink would go on sale in the province.

Meanwhile, Solomons’ team played an balanced and enterprising brand of rugby that saw them become the first South African franchise in the history of Super Rugby to reach a home semifinal.

In fact, the Capetonians would’ve finished top of the log had they not lost their final round-robin game 16-18 to the previously hapless Cats, who had the enigmatic Gaffie du Toit to thank for kicking two drop goals in clinching the win.

Du Toit would ironically resurrect his international career at Newlands a few years later.

Nonetheless, everything looked in place for the Stormers to go full tilt at winning the title.

Then, on that fateful winter’s morning, a local newspaper carried a story quoting Marinos that the players wouldn’t step one foot on the Newlands turf if their, frankly, lazy and utterly self-serving demands weren’t met.

Having read the story at dawn, Ackerman couldn’t contain his concern and immediately drove to the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands.

“I could just imagine how all the Stormers’ fans – myself very much included – would be if the game was cancelled, so I decided there and then to try and do something to resolve the situation,” the legendary local businessman later wrote in his autobiography, Hearing Grasshoppers Jump.

Ackerman recounts how “tense” things were at the hotel as he clocked in to personally chat to Solomons, assuring him that he and two fellow Pick n Pay executives “were simply here to help”.

After getting the players and team management in a boardroom, he essentially played business mediator and got the warring parties to cut a deal.

If he wrote out a personal cheque, alleged to have been over R150 000, to bridge the gap between the players’ demands and the franchise’s offer, the players would stop their boycott.

He did. Player power had won.

After racing into a 11-0, the Stormers lost control as the Highlanders classily took advantage to reach their first ever final, winning 33-18.

Solomons and co insisted that the saga was “exaggerated” and didn’t affect the players’ focus for the match, but nobody believed that.

A week later, SA Rugby announced a judicial committee would be formed to investigate the incident, with chief Rian Oberholzer admitting he was “very upset” that the issue was allowed to drag on till the morning of the match.

Not much came of the inquiry, with Krige and Marinos taking almost two months, on July 9, to apologise for spearheading the industrial action, conveniently avoiding disciplinary action.

It was a meek end to a saga still doesn’t appreciate how golden an opportunity the Stormers simply threw away.